


Space and Psychics

by JudgeBeef



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Alcohol, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, But so is Dib, Child Death, Child Murder, Child Neglect, Dib is a sweet dork, Dib is crushing so hard, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Ghosts, Human Experimentation, Kidnapping, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Relationships, Psychic Abilities, Reader is kind of a crackhead but only in personality, Reader-Insert, References to Depression, Slow Burn, Stalking, Telekinesis, Telepathy, The reader got secrets, ZADF, Zim is a dumbass, area 51, but only to the reader really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2020-11-28 16:16:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 47,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20969411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudgeBeef/pseuds/JudgeBeef
Summary: An Invader Zim Reader Insert//High School AU(Currently undergoing major editing)Gender Neutral readerAs a psychic, it's important for Y/N to keep their powers on the down-low. Nobody wants to be kidnapped and experimented on, after all. They've been hiding their psychic powers since they were a young kid, seeing as nobody around them except themself had these abilities, and their parents weren't too... supportive about them, to say the least. Plus, Y/N's best friend Dib is a total nut about the paranormal and supernatural, and they don't know what he'd do if he found out about their powers. But what happens when the new kid at school manages to find out Y/N's secret? And what if it turned out that the new kid was an alien?Invader Zim and all of its characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez.





	1. Prologue

Y/N=Your name

L/N=Last name

Y/G=Your gender

H/C=Hair color

E/C=Eye color

S/T=Skin tone

F/C=Favorite color

It was a fairly chilly autumn night. Wind blew in a cool breeze overhead, while crickets chirped away in the dark. A plethora of stars could be seen in the black sky, as a Y/G walked through the city. The Y/G had H/C hair, S/T skin, E/C eyes, and a F/C jacket, which they stuffed their hands into to keep them warm. Their name was Y/N L/N. As they walked, Y/N looked up at the sky, trying to find patterns in the stars they hadn't found before.

A streak of sudden pink light in the sky breaks their concentration, and their eyes darted around to try to see it again.

'That couldn't have been a shooting star, it was too colorful.' Y/N thought, still searching for the mysterious object they had just seen. They waited for about 2 minutes, eyes scanning the sky, before they saw the same light again. Only, now they could tell it wasn't a light.

It was a ship.

Y/N's eyes widened at what they were currently witnessing, as a pale pink and purple spaceship flies across the city, as if it was searching for something. Y/N's feet seemed to move on their own, as if entranced by the object flying above, and sprinted after it. Dodging buildings, trash cans, and cars, they managed to keep the ship in their sights as it maneuvered around, before slowing down when it came to a space between 2 suburban houses. In order to avoid being seen by what they assumed was an alien ship, Y/N hid behind a truck, which they recognized as their local plumber's truck. The ship must've landed in their neighborhood.

Whipping out their cell phone, Y/N turned on the camera and began to record what they were seeing. On the screen, Y/N watched as the ship landed, before opening to reveal a huge wall of smoke, as well as a small green humanoid with a pair of antennae and large, ruby red eyes.

"Holy shit, that's a fucking alien...!" Y/N whispered to themselves as they zoomed in on the alien, who was looking around suspiciously at its surroundings. Y/N made sure they were completely hidden, snuggling their back against one of the tires of the truck they were hiding behind. They only focused the camera back to the alien when they heard it sigh.

"Whew, that was easy!" it said, the smoke dissipating, "GIR! Get out here!"

Y/N watched in awe as a couple of cyan lights appeared from the now revealed ship, before disappearing. Then, they reappeared again as a cute little robot jumped from behind the ship to the alien, but not without accidentally tripping and falling on its stomach next to its supposed master.

"Hurry, Gir! What did you learn?" the alien tensely asked its robot, which stood up.

"I saw a squirrel," Gir said, "It was doing like this!"

And then the little robot proceeded to squat like a squirrel and chitter, making Y/N almost bust out laughing. Luckily, they didn't and kept themselves hidden.

The alien huffed, "Concentrate, Gir! It is time for disguises." it said.

"I wanna be a mongoose," Gir stated, making its alien master frown.

"Shh, we have to be quiet!" the alien harshly whispered, and Gir saluted, his cyan eyes suddenly glaring a bright red.

Y/N watched as the alien jogged over to its ship, which reacted to its presence and turned itself over. A hologram appeared and the alien swiped at it a couple of times.

"Too ugly!"

"Too stinky!"

Then finally, "That one looks good!"

The alien was then encapsulated by two half-spheres, which filled with light.

"Doh! Why does it hurt?!" the alien's voice lamented from inside the spheres before the light disappeared and the hemispheres retracted, revealing the alien, except this time, it had a pair of human-looking eye contacts and a black wig styled into a pompadour.

Y/N zoomed in on the alien with their phone camera, and they whispered in disbelief, "Jeez, this dude must be an idiot if it thinks that some eye contacts and a wig will keep him from being detected..."

Gir's cyan eyes flashed, before looking around.

"Master! Where'd you go?! Where are you?!" it called out in slight panic before the alien spoke once more.

"I'm right here, Gir! It's me!" it said, before suddenly whispering, "And keep it down, you wanna wake up the whole planet?"

Gir stared at its master, "I do." it said. Y/N felt themselves snicker, but it went unheard as the alien continued to speak.

"Okay. For you, I'm thinking maybe a dog."

"Can I be a mongoose-dog?" Gir asked, leaning forward to see the hologram.

The alien turned around to face its robot.

"Today, we become... the enemy," the alien said, raising a fist, before nudging Gir between the hemispheres. They closed around the robot and did the same thing as they did to the alien, before opening again to reveal...

Gir. But this time, in a green dog sweatshirt.

The alien stared at its companion, "INGENIOUS!!!" it yelled before becoming quiet, "Now, all we need is a home. Let's see..."

The alien pulled out another holographic pad and drew on it for a few seconds, mumbling things that Y/N's phone couldn't pick up, before closing the capsule and throwing it onto the ground.

Y/N, the alien, and Gir watched in anticipation as it drilled down into the dirt, disappearing.

"Gir! Hide!" the alien suddenly yelled, before hiding behind the red fire hydrant. Gir followed, but stood in the middle of the street. "And be quiet!" the alien continued loudly, "We can't afford to make a sound!"

'Haha, so much for that, green dude.' Y/N thought as the sound of drilling continued.

It went on for a little longer until it suddenly got super loud, and metal tendrils shot out of the ground. Y/N stumbled back a bit in their hiding spot, shocked, and made sure their camera was pointed right at the action.

Car alarms went off as the spaceship was lifted off the ground with the tendrils as they spiraled around, quickly forming the bare bones of a house and forming walls, as well as a roof that covered the ship. A satellite popped out of the roof, and more tendrils shot out of the new house, slamming into the other houses around and apparently stealing their electricity as the lights inside the house turned on. Fences shot out of the ground, along with some freaky looking garden gnomes, puffer fish on sticks, a flag that said 'I heart Earth', and a single lawn flamingo.

All around, people in their homes turn on their lights and walked outside, trying to find the source of the noise. All eyes were on the alien as he slowly came out from his garbage hiding spot, before walking out to Gir, grabbing its leash, and walking into its new house. As the door opened, two obvious robots greeted the alien, spouting out a "Welcome home, son." before the door was shut.

Eventually, everyone went back into their homes, including Y/N, as they practically sprinted down the street to their own house, watching what they had managed to capture on their phone.

"Oooooh, wait till Dibby hears about this!"


	2. Who Let This Funky Little Green Man Into My School?

Y/N yawned as the repetitive blaring of their alarm slowly edged their tired mind into consciousness, pressing their finger onto the alarm button and shutting it off. Y/N sat up groggily in their bed, staring at the wall in front of them for a few minutes, before sighing and swinging their blankets off their body.

It was 6:03.

The H/C haired human yawned once more as they stepped into their bathroom, peeling off their pajamas from the night before. Y/N brushed their teeth, took a shower, and styled their hair before checking the time on the wall clock they owned.

6:30.

Once their hair was thoroughly taken care of, Y/N walked into their kitchen, intent on making breakfast. They opened the fridge, only to find they only had some milk and eggs inside, and maybe some butter. The pantry was similar, with only some oatmeal and ramen.

"Guess I'm having oatmeal today... Bluh," Y/N complained to themselves as they grabbed the tin of oatmeal, and began to prepare their morning meal. The perks of living alone.

By the time they had finished eating, it was 6:47.

'Not bad, Y/N, not bad,' they complimented themself, knowing that they had time to bike to school.

Finally, Y/N grabbed their school bag and a jacket, seeing as it was beginning to near winter, making the air outside slightly nippy. They grabbed their keys to their motorcycle and walked out the door to their apartment, locking it, and headed out to their previously mentioned bike. They put on the helmet that was in the trunk, mounted the vehicle and put the keys in the ignition, before turning it on and speeding off to school.

As Y/N sped across town on their motorcycle, they got caught behind one of the buses that would eventually drop off students to their school. Taking a look around for their surroundings as they waited for the bus to move again, Y/N caught a glimpse of familiar green skin. Soon, their eyes landed on the green alien, who was walking down the sidewalk in its shitty human disguise. Their eyes widened.

'It's the alien from last night...!' 

They felt their breath hitch in their throat for a moment as the alien turned to them, eyes glinting in interest. Y/N couldn't help but stare, as the alien stared back. Y/N noticed that the longer they stared at the alien, the more nervous it seemed to become, sweat starting to form on its forehead. To ease the tension, Y/N gave a friendly wave to the alien, before turning their head to watch as the bus began to move forward, and then they did as well, leaving the now confused alien behind.

Once they pulled into the high school (or should I say high skool) parking lot, Y/N was met with a bear hug from their best friend, Dib Membrane.

"Heeey, Y/N! How have you been?" Dib asked, a cheesy grin on his face. Y/N grinned back as they put their bike helmet back into the trunk of their motorcycle, "I've been doing well! I made good time coming to school this morning, and- OH THAT'S RIGHT! Dibby, there's something I NEED to show you asap!" They suddenly gasped, feeling around in their jacket for their phone.

"Why don't you show me in class? Or during lunch?" Dib suggested, adjusting his backpack, "I still have to show you the footage we caught of that ghost, after all."

"Oooh, I think lunch would be the best time for that, especially since Ms. Bitters will get PISSED at us if we 'interrupt' class."

"Fair point. Lunch it is, then."

As Dib and Y/N walked to their first class of the day, Y/N's mind began to wander, more specifically to the alien they had witnessed.

'Why is it here? Is it dangerous? Does it want to kill humanity or something? And why come to Earth of all the infinite amount of planets in the void?' they pondered to themself, hand gripping their cell phone in their pocket like it was a lifeline.

After taking their respective seats, Ms. Bitters walked in, and everyone in the class mentally groaned at the teacher's presence.

God, she was awful. Boring, and awful. Shouldn't she be dead of old age by now?

Everyone's eyes were on the old woman as she stood in front of the desks, and spoke, "Class, I would like to introduce the newest, hopeless appendage to the student body."

The students in the class looked around at each other, confusedly. Wasn't it a bit late for new students? Y/N and Dib looked at each other and shrugged, before footsteps caught their attention.

Dib and Y/N's eyes widened as the green alien walked in, much to Y/N's shock.

It was in its human 'disguise' with the black pompadour wig, and grey-purple-blue contacts. It was wearing what looked to be a pink and purple striped shirt with black pants, boots, and gloves.

Dib and Y/N made eye contact again, mouths agape, and they could practically hear each other's thoughts.

'It's an alien!!!'

"His name is Zim," Ms. Bitter continued, "Zim, if you have something to say, say it NOW, because after this moment, I DON'T WANNA HEAR ANOTHER SOUND FROM YOU!!!"

Zim flinched a bit from the demon's yelling, and scanned the class with his fake eyes, before speaking. "Hello, friends! I am a perfectly normal human worm-baby. You have NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING to fear from me. Just pay no attention to me, and we'll get along just fine," Zim introduced, and Dib began to absently point at the alien in bewilderment.

'Oh God, please Dib, please spare yourself...' Y/N cringed to themself, knowing exactly what their best friend was going to do.

"Take your seat now, Zim. Today's lecture is about outer space, and how it will EVENTUALLY IMPLODE IN ON ITSELF!" Ms. Bitters announced, and Zim sat down in his seat.

Which was directly behind Y/N.

They turned to face Zim, eyeing him suspiciously, as was Dib. Zim only stared back at Y/N, eyes widening a bit in recognition, before turning his eyes to the teacher. Y/N was going to say something, but Zim interrupted by raising his hand.

"Yes, Zim?" Ms. Bitters asked, clearly annoyed.

"In the event of say, a full-scale alien invasion, how prepared do you think this planet's defenses would be? Tell me..."

Ms. Bitters quirked her brow, "As I was saying, the universe is just doomed. Doomed, doomed, dooooooomed..."

Dib suddenly stood up and Y/N held their face in their hands.

'Oh boy, here it comes...'

"Okay, am I the only one here who sees the alien sitting in class?" he asked, and everyone looked around the room, trying to identify the supposed alien. When nobody looked at Zim, Dib pointed at him, "There! Right there!"

Y/N turned to Zim and saw that he was sweating again, eyes darting around nervously.

"That is no kid! He's an alien! AN ALIEN! One of the monsters I've been talking about! He's here to conquer Earth!" Dib announced, and Y/N looked at Zim warily as he pulled up his sleeve to reveal an arm bracer with the words 'self destruct' on it. Zim noticed their staring and quickly hid the bracer, smiling nervously.

"Aw, not this again. You're crazy," one of the students said, who happened to sit behind Zim.

"What about his horrible green head?" Dib challenged, and Zim stood up.

"It's a- fool boy- it's a skin condition," he stuttered, and looked down in embarrassment at Y/N's unwavering, knowing stare.

"He's got no ears! Is that part of your 'skin condition', Zim?" Dib demanded, "No ears?!"

"... Yes..." Zim replied, faking sadness.

"But... That doesn't make any sense..." Y/N unintentionally pondered aloud, catching everyone's attention, "The only 'skin condition' that could make anyone look green would be an illness called Hypochromic Anemia, and if he were to have that, he wouldn't be able to go anywhere due to weakness, and there's no way anyone's skin could become THAT green, sick or not unless they're using body paint for whatever reason... Plus, there's no way he'd be able to hear if he didn't have ears... maybe extremely loud noises, but not regular speech..."

Everyone stared at Y/N, then to Zim, who now looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"Oh yeah! He doesn't have a nose either!" Dib pointed out, trying to get as much evidence about Zim out as possible.

"Well, maybe he was in an accident that took it off?" Another student countered, and Dib sighed.

"Y/N! Help me out here!" he begged, and said Y/G was jogged free of their thoughts.

"Wait, wha-"

"ENOUGH!!!" Ms. Bitter's demonic voice cut through the air, effectively startling everyone back into their seats, "This conversation is OVER. If I hear another word about aliens, I will send ALL OF YOU to the UNDERGROUND CLASSROOM!"

The rest of that period, no student dare spoke a word.

Throughout the school day, Y/N noticed that Zim was in a fair amount of classes with them, and he seemed to notice as well, actively trying to avoid them while Y/N tried to befriend the alien.

The one thing Zim noticed about the human who was pursuing him was that they were on a much higher social status than Dib, getting people to pass notes to him (which he refused to read, but kept) without a problem, as well as being obviously liked much more by their peers than himself or Dib, who people thought was just a crazy conspiracy theorist. Many of the students questioned why such a 'cool' person like Y/N hung out with the 'loser' of the school, but everytime someone asked they were shut down, being told to either mind their own business or to 'fuck off' as humans tend to say. There were rumors that Dib was a stalker who forced Y/N to be friends, and others said that they were dating, but neither were confirmed.

Finally, lunch came around. Y/N and Dib practically tore through the halls to get to their lunch table, and once the both of them were there, Dib pulled out his laptop and his lunchbox, which held lunch for both himself and the Y/G sitting across from them (He refused to let his best friend eat the garbage the school served).

As Y/N munched on the sandwich that was made for them, they pulled out their phone.

"Okay Dib, you remember how I said I have something to show you?" they reminded, and Dib nodded. "Well, I'm going to send you the video I took via text. Tell me what you think."

Once Dib felt his phone vibrate from his trench coat, he took it out and opened the text. A few minutes passed as Dib watched, munching on his own sandwich. By the time he had finished watching the video however, his brown eyes were wide, lunch forgotten.

"Y/N- I- This is-" he stammered, replaying certain parts of the video, namely the part where Y/N had zoomed in on Zim before and after getting his disguise. "Y/N, that's Zim! I was right! He IS an alien!"

"Oh, so you just called Zim an alien before with no proof? How rude," Y/N teased, making their friend playfully glare at them.

"C'mon, you knew it too. You can't lie to me."

Y/N simply stuck out their tongue childishly, making both of them burst into a small fit of giggles.

"Oh! You also wanted to show me the ghost footage we caught?" Y/N requested and Dib nodded, stuffing his mouth with more food. He opened his laptop and clicked around for a minute, before facing the screen towards his friend.

Y/N watched the footage, pleased with the evidence they had managed to capture.

Unknowing to the two friends, a certain green alien was watching the two interact, and decided to join in.

After putting away the laptop, Y/N and Dib's conversation went back to the footage of undisguised Zim.

"So, when did you take this video exactly?" Dib asked, moving to sit next to Y/N's right instead of across from them so they could both rewatch the video.

"Just last night. I was out for a walk to clear my head after a nightmare and saw the ship in the video. At first I thought is was a shooting star or something, but then-"

Y/N was interrupted by a sudden slam of a tray to their left, and looked up to see Zim himself.

"Mind if I... sit here?" he asked, not waiting for an answer and sitting next to Y/N, causing Dib to growl.

"Ziiiim..."

"Diiiib..." Zim growled back.

"...Uhh, personal space here, dudes..." Y/N cut through the tension, making the two realize that they were leaning towards each other right in front of the Y/G, and were indeed in their personal space.

Zim and Dib pulled back with a 'Hmph' making Y/N sigh.

"Sooo... What brings you to our table, Zim?" they asked the alien, who huffed and turned away.

"Just... felt like sitting here. Don't question me, stinky human!"

"'Stinky human'? That's rude."

"W-Well...!" Zim cut his own sentence off when he caught a glimpse of Dib's phone screen, which was currently paused on his undisguised self. He froze.

"Uhh, you good, Zim?" Y/N asked, only to be brutally knocked off their seat as the alien tackled Dib, gloved hands reaching for the phone.

"GAH! HEY, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Y/N seethed, rubbing their now sore torso.

"GIVE IT TO ME! GIVE ZIM THE DEVICE IMMEDIATELY, DIB-WORM!!!" Zim screeched, scratching at Dib, who was trying to kick off his attacker.

"FUCK OFF! GET OFF ME, I'LL KICK YOUR ASS, YOU HEAR?!" he threatened, gripping his phone and swatting at Zim for his dear life.

"H-Hey! Knock it off! The whole school is staring...!" Y/N scolded, only for the two to ignore their plea. The Y/G sighed, and pondered what to do. There's no way they could separate them physically, as they would get hurt, and obviously, scolding won't work. The only immediate option would be to...

"I'm really sorry, Dib!" Y/N apologized as they unscrewed their water bottle, and dumped it onto the brawling males.

Dib froze and yelped as the iced water hit his skin, soaking through his shirt and making him cold.

Zim, on the other hand, reacted way more.

He shrieked in what sounded like pain as a vapor of some kind evaporated off his body, seemingly from the water. Dib and Y/N watched in shock as Zim jumped to his feet and ran into the nearest bathroom, screaming and steaming the whole time.

"..."

"..."

"What the fuck," Dib breathed, still staring at the bathroom door Zim disappeared behind.

"You got that right," Y/N replied.


	3. Zim Is A Stalker And Gets Fuckin' Yeeted

Finally, the clock struck 3pm, and all the students were free from the prison known as high skool. After narrowly avoiding Dib's attempts at stalking him, Zim managed to find himself in the heart of the city in which he was currently 'residing' in. Looking around, Zim's eyes were met with flashing neon signs, large crowds sweeping the sidewalks, billboards, and the bright blue sky of the Earth's atmosphere, which was mostly blocked by tall skyscrapers and parking garages.

Zim frowned as he looked around at all the scenery around him, not being able to understand Earthly language yet. However, he could definitely understand where the eating establishments were, since strong scents of meat, oil, bread, and other Earth foods wafted from them in waves. He nearly gagged as a fish vendor passed him with a cart, the stench overpowering.

'Why do humans eat such foul-smelling garbage?' he thought grimly to himself, eyes glancing over the tall heads around him, 'And I'm starting to HATE this disguise, why are the humans mostly taller than I, the GREAT ZIM?!'

Then, his eyes caught a familiar flicker of H/C to his right. Zim's eyes widened, before rushing through the crowd after the human. This was his chance! If he could observe a human he knew in their natural habitat, he could learn a weakness about the humans!

The alien grinned to himself at his perceived genius, and followed the human into the store they had walked in.

As Zim stepped foot into the store, he was immediately slapped in the face by the sweet scent of sugar and bitter coffee. His squeedily-spooch grumbled; Sugar was one of the few things on Earth he could eat without getting sick, and whatever establishment he had stumbled into was full of it.

Looking around, Zim caught another glimpse of the familiar figure, who disappeared behind some swinging doors. This time, he actually caught the face of the human, and he was correct.

It was Y/N.

He was about to follow his classmate when a voice stopped him.

"Hello! Welcome to The Sugar Cube!" greeted a smiling woman, "Please take a seat wherever you like, and one of our servers will be right with you!" Zim blinked, before grumbling to himself and taking a seat in one of the corners of the establishment.

Looking around, Zim deducted that the place he was in was what some humans called a pastry cafe. It appeared to be candy themed, with light blue walls, white trim, and a mural of a coffee cup with a peppermint stick inside and surrounded by other sweets. Soft music played through some speakers which did relax Zim a little, but he managed to stay on edge. It was an unfamiliar place, after all.

Zim was snapped from his thoughts when he heard footsteps approach, and he looked up.

Standing next to his table was Y/N, who was wearing a white button down, black pants and shoes, as well as a soft blue and pink apron. In their hand was a singular menu, which was placed onto the table in front of him.

"Hi there! Welcome to The Sugar Cube! Can I get you something to dri-" Y/N's eyes widened as they finally realized who they were talking with, and smiled nervously, "O-Oh! Hello Zim, didn't expect you to uh... eat at a place like this."

Zim scoffed, "I'm not here to eat your disgusting human food, Y/N-thing, I'm here to observe human culture so I can use it to my advantage!"

"So you ARE an alien."

"... No I'm no-"

"Well if you're not going to order anything, I'm gonna have to kick you out. You're taking up a perfectly good table."

"Hey wait! You can't do that! I'll order something! Just give me a minute!"

Zim snatched up the menu placed before him and opened it, staring at the unfamiliar language typed into its laminated pages. He looked at the pictures, desperately trying to find something that looked appetizing to him. The longer he sifted through the menu, the more irritated he became.

"Grr, stupid human language..." he lamented to himself, unknowing that Y/N heard his suffering.

"Zim, do you want me to read the menu for you? Or if you'd like, you can give me a general idea of your tastes and I can get you something in line with them?" Y/N offered, leaning on the polished wooden table.

"... Fine. I'll tell you my personal taste preference. Surprise me," Zim grumbled, before sitting up straight in his seat, "I can only eat refined carbohydrates, and get much nutrition from sugar."

"Sooo, you like pasta and sweet things, basically."

"I don't know what this 'pah-stah' is, but sure."

"Alright, good to know," Y/N smiled, and pulled out a notepad and pen from their apron pocket. They scribbled something down onto the pad with the pen, "I think I know just the thing for you! I'll have your drink out soon!"

As Y/N walked away from his table, Zim couldn't help but notice something.

Y/N was the only teenager working in the restaurant. Why was that? Were they a prodigy of some sort? Zim hadn't heard of anyone in the high school working besides the teachers, so why would Y/N have a job? Weren't jobs only for adults?

Y/N sighed after they hung Zim's order on the cook's queue, shoulders slumping. They had only known Zim for a day, and he was already proving to be a tiring individual. Y/N could understand it, though. It's gotta be tough trying to survive on a planet different from your own, especially if you have to go undercover.

As Y/N continued to work, they couldn't help but feel Zim's eyes on them as they grabbed dishes, cups, utensils, and garbage from the used tables. As they headed back to the kitchen to get the dishes washed, Y/N snuck a glance to the green alien, and gave him a nervous smile when they realized he was staring straight back at them, eyes following their every move. Y/N quickly strutted through the swinging doors of the kitchen, and immediately relaxed.

"Good grief...," they groaned, carefully placing the dirty dishes next to the sink.

"You alright, darlin'?" Macy asked, her sweet voice laced with worry.

"Eh, could be better."

"Bad customer?"

"I wouldn't say bad, more like... awkward."

"Aw, I'm sorry sweetheart... Wish I could help, but we got that party of 10 I have to attend to, y'know?" Macy empathized.

Macy Jane was Y/N's coworker, who worked as a waitress and a hostess. She was a sweet old southern woman in her 60's with brown skin, black eyes, thick round glasses, and black, greying hair in a fro. She called everyone 'darlin'' or 'sweetheart', but it still felt special coming from such a kind person.

"It's alright, I'll get through it. 'All bad situations are always temporary,' just like you said," Y/N smiled, and Macy smiled back, before patting them on the head gently with a soft hand.

"Yer goddamn right, now get back out there before the boss things yer' slackin'."

"Aye aye, cap'n!"

Before Y/N could fully leave the kitchen, they were alerted that Zim's drink and food was ready, and they made a beeline to the pickup counter before exiting the kitchen, holding the metal tray with one hand. Once again, they made eye contact with Zim and smiled, before heading on down to his table and placing down his order.

Y/N had decided that a good drink for Zim would be a Cherry Coke, and for the 'main course', an order of strawberry crepes. They told Zim what the two items were made out of and he seemed satisfied that the food and drink wouldn't kill him.

But before Y/N could go back to work, the alien caught their wrist, causing the Y/G to look at Zim in confusion and slight panic.

"Uhh, yes...? Can I help you?" Y/N squeaked.

"You're the only human teenager I've seen who has a job. Why is that?" Zim asked, and the human in his grip began to sweat. They quickly pulled their hand away, before walking to a nearby table to grab more dishes.

"Because I need money," they responded, refusing to look Zim in the eyes.

"Why do you need money?" Zim asked.

"Money can be exchanged for goods and services." Y/N countered.

"Well DUH, it's money. What I mean is why are YOU the only teen I've seen so far working?"

"Sorry, can't talk now. Gotta get these tables dish-free and clean."

"Stop avoiding the question!"

"Enjoy your meal!"

Once Y/N had collected a good amount of dishes in their arms, they practically sprinted to the kitchen, and groaned.

"Gooood, what a diiiiick..."

"I saw what happened with that kid, Y/N. You good?" Judge asked, taking some of the dishes from the stack in Y/N's arms and taking them to the sink.

"I thought I was, but now I'm having second thoughts..."

"I can tell. That green kid looks like a handful. If you'd like, I could take him off your hands for ya'?" Judge offered, their bleached ponytail swaying as they tilted their head. Y/N smiled at their cute coworker gratefully.

"You'd do that for _moi_?" they asked, dramatically placing their hand on their chest.

"Of course, _darling_," Judge curtsied, using their apron as a makeshift dress.

The two coworkers giggled hysterically, before Judge, patted Y/N's back reassuringly.

"I'll take care of green bean out there, and you can take over my table. Just let me know when you're done so I can get back to my own tables."

"Alright," Y/N grinned, "And not gonna lie, I didn't think you'd notice that his skin is green. Most people seem to ignore it."

"Hey, I may be red-green colorblind, but I know what I'm talking about. Now go do your job before I make you cover a weekend shift for me."

With a final laugh, the two coworkers departed, going off to do their separate things.

Zim huffed as he walked out of the restaurant, annoyed that his plan didn't go as... well, planned. After he had tried to get information out of Y/N, some other human came out to serve him while Y/N served other tables, and thwarted his every attempt to continue talking to the H/C haired Y/G. The other human was about Y/N's age, which surprised Zim since he thought Y/N was the only teen working at that particular establishment, but he was still determined to get answers.

As of now, Zim was sitting on a bench in the nearby park, watching kids run around and adults talk to one another. He had managed to overhear some plans between Y/N and the other human named Judge as they worked, and gathered that they were going to meet up in the park that Zim was currently in when their shift gave them a break. It had been maybe a couple hours since he had arrived, and Zim was beginning to become horrendously bored.

Staring off into space, the alien began to tap his foot impatiently, his mind wandering to how he had gotten to where he was in the first place. First, the Tallests had forgotten to invite him to The Great Assigning, before entrusting him with a top secret mission to invade Earth. Then, after 6 months of travelling in his voot cruiser with a constant ear-splitting soundtrack of his SIR unit, Zim had finally reached his destination, before immediately building his new base and enrolling himself in the nearest high school he could find in order to find out information. He met a few humans, and now he was waiting for 2 of them to meet up so he could find out their secrets.

Man, what a drag.

Zim sighed, staring up at the blue, yet polluted sky.

He had a feeling he was going to be here a while, and he wasn't talking about just the park he was currently in.

God, this planet sucked.

Once their alarm went off signalling their break time, Y/N waved Judge over to the waiting area. Judge quickly finished wiping down a table, before practically whipping their apron off and setting their cleaning supplies into the cabinet they belonged in.

"You ready to go? I'm thinking maybe we could get some ice cream or something as a snack..." Judge suggested, pulling on their black leather jacket as Y/N pulled on their own protection against the outside.

"Sounds like a plan. It's on the way to that park nearby too, so we can eat and walk at the same time."

"Hell yeah."

As the two friends left the cafe, they laughed and joked, gossiped and ranted about their lives. Judge paid for the ice cream, and they headed out to the park to spend the rest of their break together. As they walked, Y/N failed to notice Zim, who was now curiously following the duo.

Zim listened intently to the conversation the two humans in front of him were having. Currently, the human named Judge was telling Y/N about their dog Reese, who apparently came close to catching a bird of prey in their backyard.

Zim sighed, not taking his contact covered eyes off the two. There was nothing that they were talking about that Zim could possibly deem important, and especially not useful to help him take over the Earth. He kicked rocks along the sidewalk as he listened, mentally pleading the universe for anything useful.

Unfortunately for Zim, Dib was on a mission of his own.

"HA! I've finally got you, ZIM," the boy declared, catching the alien's attention.

Zim whipped around, hate pouring into his gaze, "UGH! What do YOU want, Dib-stink?!"

"I know of your plan, ZIM! You are NOT going to stalk my best friend ANY LONGER!"

Zim then shrieked as Dib tackled him, attempting to restrain him with his weird handcuffs. Acting quickly, Zim, swung his foot up and hit Dib in the face, allowing him to run. Dib growled, before springing up and bounding after him, "YOU WON'T GET AWAY THIS TIME!"

Zim huffed and puffed as he sprinted as fast as he could, attempting to gain more distance from the teenager. He was now running across the city's boardwalk, the seawater splashing the wooden docks. He'd use his PAK legs, but he was in public, and that would be a recipe for disaster.

"Grr, stupid Dib-stink, now I've lost Y/N and Judge!" he lamented to himself, turning sharply to the left. Looking behind him, Zim could see Dib steadily gaining on him, but didn't see the streetlamp he was about to run into.

THWUNK!

Zim cried out in pain as he fell to the ground, clutching his head. He felt fear and anger as Dib stood over him, successfully intimidating him.

"End of the line, Ziiiiim.~" Dib sang, grabbing him by the collar, and throwing him over the railing of the boardwalk.

Let's just say that Zim didn't show up to school for a week after that.


	4. Y/N Becomes A Burglar... For SCIENCE, Of Course.

Dib grinned as his best friend approached him during lunch. He was super excited, for he had plans that day and desperately wanted Y/N to come with him. Hell, he even had extra snacks in his bag in case they agreed to leave with him once school ended.

When Y/N sat down across from Dib and Gaz at their table, they immediately sensed their male friend's excitement, and smiled.

"What's got you so bright today, Dibby?" they asked, taking their sandwich from Dib's lunch box, and giggled when Dib glared at them for using that nickname he so very much despised.

He sighed and shook his head, before smiling again, "I came up with another plan to stop Zim! We'll have to stop by the house first if you're gonna come with me, though. I have something to give you."

"Ooooh, a gift? I'll drive us, it's not like I have anything to do after school anyways," Y/N mused, taking a bite from their sandwich.

Dib whooped, before sitting back down in his seat in embarrassment when the people around him stared at him cheering, "Sooo, do you wanna hear the plan now or should I tell you at my house?"

"Tell me now, or I'll get anxious for the rest of the school day. You should know that by now."

"Ah, right. Here, lemme show you these diagrams I came up with-"

"You made DIAGRAMS for this???"

After school, Y/N waited impatiently by their motorcycle, foot tapping rapidly as their eyes searched for the familiar black cowlick of their best friend and his sister in the crowd of students.

Once Dib and Gaz appeared, they were going to drive to the Membrane house, drop off Gaz, pick up the gift that Dib had made for the Y/G, and head for Zim's. Once there, they were going to hide cameras and microphones inside Zim's house, before hiding themselves around the area to spy on Zim along with the planted devices.

"Ugh, what's taking them so long? The final bell rang 7 minutes ago..." Y/N huffed, leaning on their bike. They already had their personalized helmet on (they decided on horns and decorative flames), and had stashed their backpack into the trunk of their motorcycle, so now they were swirling the keys to the vehicle with one finger.

"Y/N! Sorry we're late!!" Dib yelled, seemingly appearing from thin air with Gaz, startling the H/C Y/G, who jumped.

"GAH!!! DIB! Don't scare me like that! Are you trying to make me tip my bike?!"

"Hey, it's not my fault! Zim-"

"Don't start bickering now, you idiots. You're supposed to take me home, remember?" Gaz butted in, already reaching for her motorcycle helmet. She had decorated it to look like a purple skull, courtesy of the motorcycle's owner.

Y/N got on the bike, and waited for their friends to get on. Dib huffed at his sister, but pulled out his own decorated helmet (it was supposed to look like Mothman) and hopped onto the bike behind Gaz.

Y/N stuck the keys into the ignition and turned their motorcycle on, before kicking up the stand and speeding away from the school with Dib riding in the back, Gaz in the middle, and themself driving.

Y/N laughed as they heard Gaz whoop in excitement; she had always loved riding with Y/N on their bike. In her words, 'The sound of the wind drowns out your suicidal thoughts, and that's all I can ask for.'

As Y/N continued to drive, their mind wandered. It went from thinking of Gaz, to Dib's plans, and eventually to Zim.

Ah yes, Zim. The narcissistic green alien that was the new student in Y/N's junior class. Ever since he arrived, things have been much more... interesting, to say the least.

He was an alien, after all.

'Man, I wonder what I should do with that video anyway? Upload it to YouTube?' Y/N pondered, coming to a stop at a traffic light, 'Or should I keep it to myself? The internet is full of skeptics after all, and what if Zim gets taken away because of me? Man, I wonder what it's like inside Area 51, because if Zim gets taken away, that's definitely the place he'd be taken...'

'And maybe myself, if I'm not careful.'

After arriving at the Membrane household, Dib practically dragged his best friend to his room to show Y/N the gift he made for them.

Flinging himself into his rolling chair, Dib tossed his backpack next to Y/N's on the floor, and casually rolled his chair to a shiny metallic box on his desk. He pressed the blue button on it and the box opened.

Y/N walked over to inspect what could possibly be inside the box, curiosity eating away at them. Their brows furrowed in slight confusion when Dib reached in and pulled out a singular stainless steel necklace with a glowing light blue crystal.

"... Is that a necklace?" Y/N asked, trying not to let their confusion slip through their voice.

Dib nodded, "I know it doesn't look like much, but this necklace will be crucial to our mission to expose Zim."

As Dib held out the necklace, Y/N took it into their hands carefully, treating it as if it were made of fragile glass. "And how exactly will this thing help us?" they asked, peering into the crystal as if it would reveal all the secrets to the universe.

"I'm glad you asked!" Dib grinned, suddenly standing up from his chair and straightening his posture, "You see, this necklace is a voice recorder, a camera, a tracker, and a light source all in one! By clicking the crystal's metal top, it'll activate the multiple cameras and microphones that make up the crystal, and give off a location in case you're in danger."

Y/N blinked in surprise, and clicked the metal top of the crystal like a pen. Immediately, the light blue turned to a pleasant lavender, and the multiple screens on Dib's desk turned on, showing a panoramic of the crystal's perspective, as well as a minimap that showed where the two friends were.

"Wooooah! This is so cool, Dib! How did you come up with this?!" Y/N beamed, grabbing Dib's left shoulder and shaking him while bouncing on their toes. Dib blushed a bit out of the flattery (though he really should've been used to it by now; Y/N was supportive of pretty much everything he did) and cleared his throat.

"W-well, I figured that Zim would immediately notice a full-bodied camera recording him, so I wanted to make something that would be more on the down-low... Oh! Also, any video and audio will automatically save to my computer as well as your cell phone, so there's no possible way we can lose any footage!" Dib explained, regaining his confidence at his best friend's growing grin of amazement.

"Oh! Is that why you wanted my phone to yourself that one day?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Ah, that makes sense."

After putting on the necklace with Dib's help, the two friends finally made their way to Zim's house, which was luckily a safe walking distance from the Membrane household. After all, parking a motorcycle in someone's lawn would scream suspicious. As the two walked up, Y/N clicked their new necklace and it turned purple again, signalling it was recording.

"So, how are we starting this? Are we just gonna bust in, or...?" Y/N asked, tugging on Dib's sleeve of his black trenchcoat.

Dib narrowed his eyes as the two came closer to their destination. "We should hide first, and listen to see if he's home. Once the coast is clear, we'll sneak in through one of the windows, place our bugs, and hide again."

Y/N clicked their tongue, furrowing their brows in thought. "That could take a long time, Dib. Besides, what if Zim is already home? If that's the case we'll be here till tomorrow, and I have homework to do!"

"You never even do your homework."

"True, but that doesn't mean I don't think about trying it."

"Oh whatever, dumbass, you know damn well that's bullshit. C'mon, let's just hide." Dib groaned, slinking into the alien's yard with Y/N right behind him.

While Dib carefully tiptoed along the perimeter of the house, Y/N simply followed behind, not bothering to be sneaky in any way, occasionally kicking a pebble in the grass. Dib glared at them, before pulling them behind the side of the house.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Dib whisper yelled, gripping Y/N's collar, "Are you trying to get us caught?!"

"Dib, we're already mostly caught. Did you not notice those garden gnomes following our every move?" Y/N replied, gesturing to the gnomes whos heads rotated to follow their movements.

"... Oh."

"Yeah."

"WHO DARES TRESPASS ON THE GREAT ZIM'S PROPERTY???" Zim's voice suddenly boomed, along with the loud slam of the front door opening.

"Dib! Distract him!" Y/N ordered, before shoving their friend out into the open, who was immediately noticed by the alien.

"... Dib-stink," Zim growled with hate.

"...Zim," Dib reluctantly retaliated.

"Dib-stink!"

"Zim!"

"DIB-STINK!"

"ZIM!"

"DIIIB-STIIINK!!!"

"ZIIIM!!!"

As the two boys began to bicker, Y/N took the chance and snuck around the back of the house, looping around until they were behind Zim, and next to the door. They made eye-contact with Dib and winked, who's eyes widened as Y/N disappeared into Zim's home.

Y/N closed the door behind them and locked it, which they hoped would keep Zim out of the house longer. As they turned around, they were immediately taken aback by the interior design of Zim's abode.

"...What the fuck..." They gaped as they walked around the house, double-checking the crystal camera around their neck to make sure it was seeing what they were seeing.

It was probably the ugliest house they had ever been in. Tacky wallpaper, weird green monkey painting, clashy tile flooring in the living room, and was that a TOILET in the kitchen??

Y/N wouldn't be surprised if Zim had carpet installed in his bathrooms.

The Y)G held their breath as they opened the door to Zim's fridge, not knowing what to expect.

... Waffles.

That was all that was in the fridge: boxes upon boxes of freezable Eggo waffles. (Psst hey Eggo you should sponsor me and send me money lmaooo jk... unless...?)

"Jeez, can Zim even take a shit with all those carbs??" Y/N pondered aloud to themself, stepping on the trash can pedal. They doubted it, but maybe they'd find something useful there?

It was very useful.

Y/N shrieked as the floor beneath them suddenly disappeared, flinging them into a chute that traveled lower and lower underground.

"OH SWEET JESUS JUMPING ON A BREAD STICK WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!!!" Y/N screamed, before they were suddenly ejected from the chute, and smacked face first into a cold floor.

"Auuuughhh..." they groaned in pain, curling up and holding their injured nose in their hands. After getting over the pain from their impact, Y/N sat up and slowly opened their eyes, carefully taking in their surroundings.

Their E/C eyes widened to the size of saucers at their location.

It appeared to be a lab. But not just any lab.

An extremely high-tech lab with a variety of screens, machinery, and elevators that went to unknown areas.

Y/N once again made sure that the necklace was recording before standing up shakily, using the closest wall to help them regain their balance.

"I knew that Zim was an alien, but this is fucking over the top..." they breathed, their eyes landing on letters of an unknown language.

But more importantly, the supercomputer in front of them.

Y/N cautiously approached the computer, fumbling their hand around in their pocket, desperately searching for a certain device.

"Aha!" Y/N cheered to themself as they pulled out their modified flash drive, and was delighted to find that it had taken no damage from their fall at all.

"... Can I help you, human?" a computerized voice suddenly rang out, causing Y/N to nearly jump out of their skin.

"What- uh, who said that?" they called out, looking around for any lifeforms. The voice sighed, not even trying to hide its annoyance.

"I'm the computer. And you are?" the computer introduced, and a camera suddenly sprang out of the wall beside the large computer screen, and honed in on Y/N, taking pictures of their features. Y/N nervously looked into the camera, and answered, "I'm not sure it's a good idea to answer you, but my name is Y/N if you really want to know..."

The camera pulled away, and the computer spoke again, "Anyways, why are you here?"

"... I don't really want to say, but for the most part I'm just... dropping in." Y/N answered, mentally snickering at their pun, "Uh anyways, I know you're probably gonna hate me for this, but I do want information about Zim, and you, computer, seem to be the best source for that..."

"... What kind of information?"

"Anything, really. Species info, Cultural practices, weaknesses, strengths... maybe blackmail..."

"Deal. I'll give you everything I can."

"I- WAIT HOLY SHIT REALLY?"

"Yes. You're lucky I hate Zim more than I hate you, and that I have no orders to deter data-stealing burglars. Now insert that flash drive already before I shoot you."

"I- okay!"

Below the computer's screen, a small device revealed itself, it being a USB port. Y/N inserted the flash drive, and immediately the screen showed a downloading progress bar.

"I'll let you know when it's done." The computer stated, and Y/N nodded.

"Thanks."

As the computer downloaded God knows what onto the flash drive, Y/N pulled out the multiple bugging devices they promised to plant. They walked about the lab, placing them next to computer screens, on walls, drawers, inside elevators, and other places.

That was, until they were interrupted by a robot.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" it squealed, and Y/N immediately recognized the robot from the video they took of Zim first landing on Earth.

Ah yes, the robot was GIR, the absolutely batshit imbecile of a robot.

"Heeey, your name is GIR, right?" Y/N asked, and GIR gasped in shock.

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?! Ooooooo, are you a MAGICIAN? HELP ME MAKE MAGIC WAFFLES!!!!" Gir screamed, and Y/N had to hold themselves back from covering their ears.

"Uh, maybe some other time, buddy... I have some other things to do right now..." they nervously chuckled, tugging on their shirt collar.

"Awwww...." GIR whined, before immediately perking back up, "I'M GONNA WATCH TV!!!"

And then the robot was gone, leaving Y/N alone in the lab.

"Well... he was... something." They mumbled to themself, "Oooh, maybe I should take some pictures of files as well...? Video certainly won't catch everything on its own..."

Y/N pulled out their cell phone and turned on its camera, before opening drawers, files, and unlocking safes and scanning their contents. If there was something that looked interesting, Y/N made sure to snap a picture of it, as well as continuing to place the bugs.

Soon, Y/N was literally dragged back to the supercomputer, who told them that the flash drive was now full. Y/N took the flash drive back and thanked the computer, before heading back to the elevator that took them to the ground level. Quickly, Y/N placed the rest of the remaining bugs around Zim's house level, just in time for Zim himself to bust down his own door.

Oh yeah, Y/N locked it behind them.

As Zim's eyes made contact with Y/N's, he froze, as if trying to comprehend what he was seeing. However, that didn't last long.

"HUMAN Y/N?!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BA- ER, I MEAN HOUSE?!?" he screamed, sprinting straight for the Y/G.

"Just checking out my new neighbor's house-" Y/N tried to lie but they were cut off by being literally flung out the front door, their body harshly colliding with Dib's.

"STAY OUT OF ZIM'S HOUSE, EARTH SCUM!!!" the alien screamed, before slamming his now broken front door shut.

Instantly, Dib leapt to his feet, before carefully inspecting his best friend who was still lying on the sidewalk. "Are you okay? You're not seriously injured, are you?" he fretted like a mother would. He gently tugged Y/N to their feet and held them as they regained their balance, rubbing their head from what was now 2 collisions in the span of 15 minutes.

"Yeah, I'm good. Also..." Y/N smirked, a mischievous grin spreading across their face, "I think I got us some info that'll take us a few steps ahead of Zim. Will you let me spend the night at your house? I can tell you more then."

Dib's brown eyes widened, before he broke out into a grin as well. "You know you can spend the night at any time, right? For as long as you'd like? Dad said so himself."

"Guess that's a yes, ain't it?"

"Absolutely."

Then, the two friends walked home, their curiosities satisfied.

For now, at least.


	5. Aw Yeah, Amusement Park Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm renaming the story Space and Psychics because that'll match up waaaay more with the plot that I have intended. Carry on!

Y/N yawned as sunlight filtered through the blinds of Dib’s room, effectively rousing them from their slumber. They turned their head on their pillow and smiled when they saw that Dib was still asleep next to them. Y/N directed their eyes to the alarm clock on their best friend’s desk. It was about 10:30 in the morning. Gaz and Professor Membrane were probably up by now, considering the clanking of pots and pans in the kitchen, and the beeps and boops of a videogame in the living room.  
Y/N had spent the night at the Membrane household after breaking into Zim’s house, showing Dib all of the information they had collected on the alien, and downloading the information onto his computer. He had been ecstatic about it, yanking Y/N into a tight hug and promising to buy Y/N pizza and do their homework for a month. After that, the two did a quick scan of the information before watching movies, playing Cards Against Humanity with Gaz and Professor Membrane (who was slightly appalled by the game), stuffed their faces with snacks, and finally engaged in ‘sleepy talk’, aka having deep conversations with one another while they tried to fall asleep.  
Y/N slowly pulled off the blanket covering their body, being mindful of Dib’s sleeping form, and stepped into the hallway before closing the bedroom door behind them.  
“Ah Y/N, you’re awake! I was just about to come and wake you two up!” Professor Membrane announced, startling the Y/G since he seemed to appear out of thin air.  
Y/N shook off their stupor and grinned sleepily at the man in front of them, “I heard the pots and stuff in the sink downstairs, and figured it was time to get up. By the way, what’s for breakfast?” they asked, and Professor Membrane ran a gentle gloved hand through Y/N’s bed head as he accompanied them down the stairs and into the kitchen.  
“I’m making… TOAST!!!” the scientist dramatically announced as the toaster dinged and set the fresh toast flying, only for it to be caught on a plate by Foodio 3000 and placed at the dining table.  
“Y/N has awoken!” the robot gasped, “Time to make… EGGS!!!”  
As the robot turned around and took over the kitchen to make Y/N’s meal, the Y/G was suddenly dragged to sit at the kitchen table with Professor Membrane, who had spread butter on his toast and was munching on it.  
“So Y/N, how has my children’s best friend been? Are you able to afford your groceries?” he asked, lowering his voice so only Y/N could hear. They shrugged.  
“Things have been… decent? I do need to go grocery shopping, though. I’ve forced to eat nothing but oatmeal for breakfast and ramen for dinner for the past week.” they complained, and Professor Membrane’s brows furrowed in worry.  
“Y/N, we have talked about this. If you can’t afford food, I’ll gladly buy it for you-”  
“It’s not that I can’t afford it, I just… have a hard time getting the motivation to actually drive my ass to the store. It doesn’t help that I’m constantly tired, too…”  
“Language. And when you say you’re tired… Have you been getting those nightmares again?”  
Y/N’s mouth closed in a tight line as flashes of their recurring nightmare danced across their vision, giving the poor Y/G a headache and a fearful tug in their heart.  
Professor Membrane sighed, knowing what Y/N’s silence meant.  
“Y/N, I’ve known you for nearly a decade now, and I mean it when I say I’m willing to do anything to help you. We have plenty of food in this house to share and an extra bedroom just waiting for an occupant. Your mental health has been deteriorating, and it hurts me to see you suffer like this. Please… just let us help. We care about you, child. I see you as one of my own children, you know.”  
“...” Y/N’s bottom lip began to tremble but quickly stopped. They opened and closed their mouth repeatedly, trying to form a sentence in their mind. When they couldn’t think of one, Y/N merely shook their H/C head.  
“Maybe, but not now.” they sighed.  
Professor Membrane was about to say something when Foodio 3000 suddenly butted in, placing a plate in front of Y/N, which was full of hashbrowns, some fruit, and a couple of cooked eggs.  
“Food’s ready!!!”  
Y/N gave Foodio 3000 a small smile and thanked the robot for the food. They caught the professor’s stare as they began to dig in.  
“... We’ll talk about this later,” he slowly ordered, before walking away to put his plate in the sink, and then entered his personal home lab.

After Dib woke up and ate breakfast, he and Y/N joined Gaz on the couch to watch the girl play video games.  
She was currently playing Mario Kart and racing against some internet friends she had. Of course, she was in 1st place, which was nothing new to the people sitting beside her on the couch.  
Then, just as Gaz finished their final lap, a familiar levitating screen appeared next to the couch and showed Professor Membrane’s face.  
“Oh hey, Dad…” Dib grumbled, upset that his father didn’t bother to come to them in person.  
“What is it, Dad?” Gaz asked, doing only a bit better to hide her discontentment.  
“Children! I have come to announce an important trip you will be taking today.” Professor Membrane said, catching everyone’s attention.  
“Trip? What trip?” Y/N asked, tilting their head to the side, and suddenly, a slip of paper materialized in everyone’s hands.  
Dib looked down at the slip and studied it for a moment before his face contorted from confusion to sheer annoyance.  
“Really, Dad? An amusement park?” he scoffed, holding the paper (which was actually a ticket) between his thumbs.  
“Yes!” Professor Membrane answered, “It appears that the three of you have been down lately, and haven’t gotten out much. I want you all to go to this amusement park today, and have fun!”  
Y/N rolled their eyes, knowing full well who this was really directed at.  
“Do we have to go, Dad?” Gaz whined, waving her ticket around like a mini flag.  
“Yes.”  
“AAAAUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHH.” the teens groaned, before begrudgingly marching off to get ready.

“WHAT are those dookie-brained humans up to now???” Zim mumbled to himself, spying on Dib with his X-ray binoculars. He was currently seated on a nearby rooftop, disguised as he desperately peeked into the house of his enemy.  
Zim had easily found many of the bugs placed in his base and figured it was the work of Dib and Y/N. There had been no other living being in his home besides those two anyway, so it was really easy to figure out. Now that he knew, he fully intended to get revenge on the pair of humans, but mostly Dib since he was annoying.  
Zim watched with his binoculars as Dib, Y/N, and Gaz met up in one room in the house, before exiting and piling onto the motorcycle that Y/N drove. The three humans put on their helmets and drove off, Y/N at the handlebars again.  
“GIR!!! Get me the Voot cruiser!!! I need to follow them…” Zim commanded the robot, who answered with a loopy “Okie Dokie!”.

Zim was appalled by how many humans were around him. They had all formed a messy line, all trying to squeeze through a few gates that lead into something called an “Amusement Park.” He growled as a clumsy kid behind him stepped on the back of his shoe, and fought the urge to shove the kid and give him hell.  
However, that would out him as an alien for sure, or at the very least a criminal.  
Zim sighed in annoyance, disguised eyes scanning the area. He noticed that the people who successfully reached the gates had to give another human some white slip and received some sort of wrist band in return. Zim quickly figured out the slip was an entry ticket due to the deafening chatter all around him, and the wristband proof he had given his ticket away.  
Zim swore under his breath, knowing full well he needed to at least get a wrist-band to pursue the 3 humans he was after. He stared at the human in front of him. Male, pale skin, probably in his 40s or 50s.  
And his ticket was jutting out of his back pocket, just begging to be stolen.  
Zim grinned at his luck.

After managing to gain entry into the amusement park, Zim quickly looked around to try and find Y/N, Dib, and Gaz. It took a while, but eventually, he found them, waiting in line for some odd speed contraption. Luckily for him, they were at the back of the line, granting him easier access to the trio.  
However, before he could actually join the line with them, he heard Gaz groan.  
“Okay, this line is taking waaay too long.” she huffed, tapping her foot impatiently.  
“Yeah, we’ve been waiting for what, 10? 15 minutes?” Dib estimated, tying his black trenchcoat around his waist due to the heat of the day.  
“Something like that. How about we play some of the booth games in the meantime? Maybe the lines will die down a bit?” Y/N suggested, pointing to some colorful booths with flashing lights and stuffed animals hanging from strings.  
Dib and Gaz shrugged and nodded.  
“Might as well. It’s better than standing around in the heat.” Dib replied before the three friends walked off.  
Zim grumbled, jogging to catch up with the trio and follow them from a safe distance.  
He watched as Dib gave a human behind a booth counter money, and was given about 9 darts in return. Zim’s eyebrows flew up in shock.  
‘Aren’t humans supposed to be pacifistic? Why would they be given darts for fun?’ he thought, hiding between a couple of colorful tents and tuning into the humans’ conversation.  
“I can pay for myself, you know…” Y/N snickered at Dib, who sighed and rolled his eyes.  
“I know, but Dad told me if I let you spend money he’d ground me,” he explained, picking up one of the 3 darts he rationed for himself. He closed one eye and aimed, before throwing the dart.  
POP!  
Zim jumped a bit at the sudden loud sound, and Y/N cheered.  
“My turn!” they announced, picking up their own dart and aiming. Zim peeked his head around the corner and watched as Y/N hurled their dart and popped a bright yellow balloon. They whooped at their accomplishment and pointed to Gaz.  
“Your turn!”

In the end, Gaz had won the prize by successfully popping 3 balloons. She picked out a decently sized pig plushie, and shoved it into the bag she was wearing. Y/N had come close in 2nd place with 2 popped balloons, and Dib in last place with only 1.  
Zim continued to follow the trio as they made their way around. They seemed to become more relaxed and happier as the day grew older, Y/N repeatedly being thrown into laughing fits by corny jokes from Dib and sarcastic yet lighthearted remarks from Gaz.  
They seemed happy.  
Unfortunately for Zim, he had become so caught up in listening to the trio’s conversations that he forgot to keep a safe distance, and soon met eyes with the E/C eyed Y/G, Y/N.  
Their eyes widened a bit, before giving Zim a friendly smile.  
“Hey, Zim! I didn’t think you’d like amusement parks!” they called out to the alien, catching Dib’s attention. He quickly whipped around to face Zim and put an arm in front of Y/N and Gaz protectively.  
“ZIM! What are you doing here?!” he barked, obviously upset by the alien’s presence.  
“The great ZIM was simply enjoying his time in the park of amusement, Dib-stink!” Zim lied, grinding his pointed teeth.  
“Oh yeah, sure, just here for joy, huh?!” Dib countered, “That’s about as likely as my head being too big for my neck!”  
“...”  
“...”  
“...”  
“Alright, fuck off. What do you WANT, Zim?” Dib asked, clenching his hands into fists.  
“I’m here to take REVENGE!!! You bugged my house, and now you must PAY!” Zim yelled, attracting the attention of multiple passersby. He looked around, and coughed to himself, trying to get the crowd to ignore him. They did.  
Before Dib could respond, Y/N spoke.  
“How about we pay by letting you tag along? I’ll pay for games and food for you if you want,” they offered.  
“Yeeees! Zim wishes to tag along!” he grinned mischievously, and Dib facepalmed before gripping his best friend by the shoulders.  
“Y/N! ZIM is the ENEMY! WHY would we let him tag along with us?! He’ll probably try to- uh- throw you to your death off the Ferris wheel or something!” he cried out, and Y/N shrugged.  
“I personally don’t see why we don’t let him tag along. After all, I personally prefer to kill with kindness.”  
“You’re going to kill me?!” Zim hissed out, and Gaz shook her head.  
“It’s a human metaphor. Don’t worry about it,” she explained.  
“C’mon, Dib! Please?” Y/N begged.  
“No.”  
“Pleeease? I said I’ll pay for him!”  
“No! And you remember what I said about Dad not wanting you to spend money?”  
“He’s your dad, not mine! He can’t control what I do with my money!”  
“Y/N please, this isn’t a good idea-”  
“Neither was I, but you don’t see me complaining!”  
“... You really need to stop saying things like that. It’s not good for your mental health.”  
“Oh fuck off, Dibby.”  
Dib sighed, defeated, and glared at the alien standing in front of him.  
“You can tag along, on ONE condition,” he growled, and Zim smirked.  
“And what would that be, human?”  
“You can’t sit by me on any of the rides unless I invite you-”  
“Like I’d want to sit next to you.”  
“-You’re paying for your own games and food-”  
“But Y/N said-”  
“SHUT UP! -and finally, if you break any of those rules I get to spray you with water.”  
“Absolutely NOT, DIB-STINK!”  
Dib smirked, crossing his arms. “Are you saying you can’t follow 2 simple rules? I mean, the water part only happens if you fail the first 2.” he challenged, and Zim sputtered out nonsense, trying to defend himself before sighing.  
“Fine. Deal.” Zim accepted.

Zim grumbled to himself as he handed some money to a booth manager. This booth happened to be a water shooting game. He didn’t want to play, but after receiving some begging eyes from Y/N and 2 death glares from the Membrane siblings, Zim agreed to play.  
Dib, Y/N, and Zim sat down in their stools and watched as the rubber ducks began to move in the water shelf, before grabbing their guns. Gaz wasn’t playing since she wanted to check in with her Dad to let him know everything was going well. Zim suddenly felt relieved he was wearing his usual black gloves to keep his hands dry, as there was clear evidence of splashing water in this game.  
“Are you ready?” the booth manager asked dully, bored out of his mind. The 3 people nodded before the guns in front of them began to glow, signaling there was water inside them.  
“Begin.” the booth manager demanded, stepping out of the way of the rubber ducks.  
Everyone snatched up their guns and began to fire, producing steady streams of water.  
Zim grinned triumphantly as he shot down 1 duck, then another, and then another with near-perfect precision. Y/N and Dib were doing pretty well also, with Y/N quick firing and taking down multiple ducks at a quick pace, and Dib charging his water stream and blasting multiple ducks as well. He even knocked one out of the canal they were running through.  
In the end, Zim and Dib tied with 15 ducks knocked over and Y/N with 12.  
As his prize, Dib picked out an inflatable rubber alien which he immediately punched to annoy Zim (he succeeded.) Zim however, picked out a small moose plush.  
After the water shooting game, the 4 went around playing other booth games like memory teasers, skeeball (which Y/N was surprisingly an expert at), hoop shooters, and other games. While Zim tried desperately to hide it, he was having fun.  
“So Dib, as you can see, ZIM is SUPERIOR in the ‘bow-ling’ game!” he announced with a toothy grin, and Dib frowned in distaste at his narcissism as Y/N smiled a bit wider than they already were.  
“Yeah, you did manage to beat us in that. Nice job.” they complimented, and nearly choked on their spit when Zim suddenly shoved his prize into their face, aka a large stuffed bear.  
“You see this?! It’s proof of my superiority! PRAISE ME!!” he demanded, and Y/N’s smile dropped immediately at his arrogance, eyebrows knitted.  
“Zim, you do realize that nobody except yourself cares about your prizes, right?” they asked, “The prizes are only meant for motivation to play the games, not trophies to show you’re better than anyone.”  
Zim froze and stared at the abundance of stuffed animals, inflatable characters, and candy he had in his hands.  
“So, all of that work? For NOTHING?” he cried out, holding out one of the inflatables and gripping it so hard it popped.  
“You seriously consider playing literal games as work?” Gaz butted in, sucking on a lollipop she had won, “Man, you really are an alien.”  
“Grrrr…” he growled, body shaking from anguish, before shouting “Y/N! YOU DID THIS! YOU MADE ME WASTE MY TIME AND MONEY ON COMPLETELY WORTHLESS OBJECTS!”  
Then, he shoved all of his prizes into the Y/G’s arms and turned away, attempting to cool off his anger and muttering to himself.  
“... Are you giving these to me?” Y/N asked Zim, hands grazing over a particularly soft puppy plush.  
“Uh, yes? They’re worthless to Zim, why would I want them?” he snapped, finally turning towards the group again. They had stopped to rest at one of the park tables since they had been playing games for about an hour now and everyone’s legs needed a break from standing.  
“Let me give you a quick lesson in humanity, Zim,” Y/N remarked, catching the alien’s attention, “Humans are sentimental beings, and we like to retain our good memories. That’s a reason why we keep the prizes won at carnivals despite their uselessness, and take photos of our family, and even listen to music. All those things hold memories to us. So when we see that stuffed animal sitting on our dresser, we can be reminded of those good times we had linked to that stuffed animal, and become happy.”  
Silence overcame the whole table as Y/N’s words sank into everyone’s minds.  
“...That was deep, not gonna lie.” Dib commented, and Gaz nodded in agreement. She had already pulled out her Game Slave and was playing with the device under the metal table.  
“Sooo, in order to seem more human, I should have at least 1 piece of memorabilia?” Zim asked, tilting his wigged head to the side.  
“Is that really all you gathered from that little speech?” Dib asked dryly.  
“I’m an invader here to take over your world. I don’t need any of that extra information,” he replied, sifting through his pile of prizes that now sat on the table. He hummed to himself for a moment, before finally pulling out a thick moose plush and shoving it into his PAK. “Y/N-human, you can keep the rest.”  
“Okay, thanks, I guess?”

Dib glared as his best friend and worst enemy interacted. He couldn’t believe that Y/N was being nice to the alien invader who wanted nothing more than to conquer and enslave the human race! But another part of him could understand. They didn’t like conflict, and would rather be nice to everyone unless they were directly hurt by someone.  
Guess that rule still counted for aliens.  
As Dib became lost in his thoughts, he allowed his eyes to wander around the scenery, and they stopped at the peak of one of the rollercoasters he hadn’t been on yet.  
The Spiral to Madness.  
It was the largest roller coaster in the park, and easily the scariest. Before he, his sibling, and friend headed out to the amusement park they were currently in, Dib had done some research on the establishment to see if they should actually listen to his dad and go to the amusement park, or tear up the tickets and just wander the city. It was one of the top 5 amusement parks in the country, with The Spiral to Madness being one of the top 3 most thrilling roller coasters on the same list. Apparently, it had given a completely healthy person a heart attack at a super sudden drop. They survived, but the roller coaster had already claimed its reputation as terrifying because of it.  
Dib smirked, an idea sparking in the middle of his mind.  
“Heeeeey Ziiiim~” he teasingly sang, catching the alien’s attention.  
“What do you want, Dib-stink?” Zim grumbled, annoyed as he tapped one of his 3 fingers on the tabletop.  
Dib pointed to the infamous roller coaster in the distance. “You see that roller coaster over there?” he pointed out, before grinning slyly, “I bet you can’t ride it without screaming like a baby!”  
Zim’s eyes widened, before narrowing with hate at the teenage boy sitting across from him.  
“You dare challenge the MIGHTY ZIIIIM?” he barked, jumping to his feet and stepping on the tabletop.  
“Dude, get off the table. People have to eat on that.” Y/N chimed in but was ignored. Gaz nudged their leg with her own beneath the table; a sign of reassurance and understanding. She was just as annoyed as Y/N was.  
“Yes, I do dare challenge you, ZIM. What, are you scaaaaared?” Dib taunted, and Zim growled.  
“ABSOLUTELY NOT! I, the GREAT ZIIIIM, am not scared of anything! LET’S GO, DIB-STINK!” he hollered, jumping off the table and gripping Dib’s arm, yanking him in the direction of the roller coaster.

“Should we follow them?” Y/N asked, tilting their head in the direction the two boys ran off to.  
Gaz shook her head. “Nah, they’ll be fine. I’m hungry, though. Let’s go get some food.” she requested, “I’ll pay. Just tell me what you want.”  
Y/N hummed to themself for a moment. “I’m thinkin’… corn dogs,” they answered, “Oh, by the way, are we gonna get food for Dib and Zim? They’ll probably be hungry when they get back, and maybe a bit sick if they’re going on The Spiral to Madness. I don’t think it would be fair if we got food without them.”  
The purple-haired girl hummed in thought. “Fair point. I’ll get you and Dib a couple of corn dogs. What do you think I should get Zim? He IS an alien, after all.” Gaz asked.  
“Hmmm, well if it’s any help, Zim can only eat refined carbs and sugar. Anything else makes him sick.” Y/N answered, remembering their time with Zim at the pastry cafe they worked at.  
“So like, pasta and sweet things?”  
“That’s what I said!”

Zim looked up at the gate of the roller coaster he and Dib would be riding.  
It was… intimidating. The gate was spiked and painted black with fake blood on the points of stakes that indicated where the line was, and spooky music played from speakers. Fake human bodies were in the ceiling, the faces of the people gradually changed from normal looking and peaceful to insane. As cheesy and fake the whole thing looked, Zim couldn’t help but feel slightly scared, especially as he watched the people get off the ride, who looked visibly shaken and paler than they once were.  
To ease his thoughts, Zim turned his attention to the human standing beside him. Dib looked to be in the same state as Zim; visibly worried but desperately trying not to show any weakness to the other. Zim smirked.  
“Well Dib-stink, are you thinking of giving up?” he taunted, and Dib’s brown eyes glared into his own red ones (which had his purple contacts in obviously).  
“Of course not! If anything, YOU’RE the scared one,” he replied, and Zim’s smirk dropped.  
“How DARE you! As I said earlier, Zim is not scared of anything!”  
“Yeah, not afraid of anything, huh? Except for water, dogs… beeeeans…”  
“SHUT UP!”  
By now, Zim and Dib were nearly at the front of the line to the ride. Once the current riders got off, they would be seated next. As the coaster carts rolled in, Zim and Dib ceased their bickering. Both of the males felt their blood pumping faster, knees weakening, and palms become sweaty. As the gate to take their seats on the ride opened, Dib nervously looked at the green alien standing next to him.  
“Uhh, aliens first…?” Dib offered nervously, gesturing for Zim to head through the gate first.  
Zim glared, but it was short-lived as both he and Dib were practically manhandled by the carnival staff, and strapped into seats next to each other. The two nervously looked at each other, before nodding in a sudden fit of mutual understanding.  
“Zim, if I die here, do me a favor and get the world to believe in the paranormal for me.”  
“And if I die, take care of GIR.”  
And then the ride took off.  
Both Zim and Dib were expecting the roller coaster to go super fast for the takeoff, but it didn’t. In fact, it went agonizingly slow. The two could only helplessly watch as the coaster crept higher and higher until the people down below seemed like the size of ants. A crowd of people had gathered to watch the patrons of the roller coaster, some hooting, and hollering while the others just stood there, waiting.  
Soon, the coaster carts had reached the top. For just a moment, both Zim and Dib felt a sense of peace, as a soft breeze brushed against their faces, and the heat of the sun enveloped their bodies in pleasant warmth. The two looked down at the world below and was entranced by how high they were. The view was beautiful.  
And then the carts began their descension.  
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”  
Everyone on the roller coaster screamed as the carts plummeted down to Earth, the velocity and speed making the riders’ eyes water. As the first drop accelerated, it began to turn in a corkscrew and then did a giant loop-de-loop. Zim and Dib screamed and gripped one another for dear life as the carts suddenly changed direction, shooting them upwards once again. There was another corkscrew that caused Zim’s head to spin and Dib’s glasses to fly off his face. All they could do was scream and pray they didn’t die.

Gaz and Y/N watched from the ground as the two boys screamed as if their life depended on it. Munching on their corn dogs, they walked up to the photo counter and paid for 2 pictures. Once that was done, they sat down on the nearest empty bench and waited for Dib and Zim.  
“Do you think they’re okay?” Y/N asked as their friends zoomed past once again, their screams echoing around the amusement park.  
“Not right now, but they will be,” Gaz smirked, one of her eyes opening to stare at her brother and his enemy.  
Suddenly, something fell in front of Y/N’s feet, and they picked up the object.  
It was the pair of glasses that Dib was wearing.  
Y/N sighed. “Welp, at least I brought his spare. I swear to God Dib always forgets to on trips like these.”  
“I mean, he is an idiot. What did you expect?” Gaz replied, turning the stick of cotton candy she bought for Zim in her hands.  
“Don’t worry, I expected nothing less. I’ve been his friend for what, 8? 9 years?”  
“Something like that.”  
As the two friends continued to talk, Y/N looked closely at the photograph in their hands, attempting to find both Zim and Dib. It was a pretty easy task since Zim was literally green. As Y/N’s eyes comprehended what happened in the picture, the Y/G burst out laughing.  
“AHAHAHA- G-GAZ OH MY GO-” they cackled, coughing on their corn dog, “L-LOOK AT THE FU-FUCKIN PICTURE- HAHAHAHA-”  
Gaz pulled out her own copy of the picture. She had intended to fully check it out once she was back home, but now the purple-haired girl was intrigued. When she found her idiot brother in the picture, she choked on her own corn dog, brown eyes welling up with tears of laughter.  
In the photo was a picture of the riders. Most of them were screaming or laughing which wasn’t out of the ordinary until you could see Zim and Dib. The two boys were sharing their cart (courtesy of the workers) and were literally clutching each other for dear life; their legs were tangled together and nearly falling out of the cart, and Dib’s arms were tightly wrapped around Zim’s torso while his arms were practically fused to Dib’s neck, his 3 fingers clutching Dib’s blue shirt. Both of them had the most terrified expressions out of everyone on the ride.  
Gaz and Y/N had just barely calmed down their laughing when they looked at each other.  
“Oooh, we are never going to let them live this down.” Y/N stated, covering their mouth with one hand.  
“You’re so right,” Gaz replied, practically hunched over the bench. The two friends only had to stare into each other's eyes to enter into another uncontrollable fit of giggles.

As Zim and Dib stepped off of the ride, they had to hold onto both the railing and their stomachs. Zim groaned and Dib panted as they carefully tread down the metal stairs.  
“Urgh… Dib-stink, Zim doesn’t feel too well…” the alien groaned, nearly tripping on his own feet. Dib only nodded, his voice hoarse from screaming.  
When the two reached the bottom of the stairs, Zim and Dib found Y/N and Gaz sitting on a bench, practically doubled over in laughter.  
“What are you two laughing at…?” Dib croaked, sitting next to his sister while Zim sat next to Y/N, who tried to explain only to burst out laughing again. The Y/G had tears streaming down their face.  
Finally, Gaz was able to calm down a bit and tease the two boys.  
“I can’t believe you broke your own rule, Dib,” she wheezed, and Dib cocked his head.  
“What are you talking about?”  
“You said that- hehehe- if Zim sat next to you without your permission you’d spray him with water-”  
Zim quickly butted in. “HEY! In Zim’s defense, those mindless drones you call workers forced us!” he cried out, taking the cotton candy Gaz offered.  
“Ye-yeah I can get that, but MAN! You two were fuckin’ holding on to one another for dear life on that thing!” Y/N giggled, holding out their copy of the photo and Dib’s spare glasses. Dib grabbed his spares from Y/N, and he and Zim leaned in to see. They both flushed with embarrassment, Dib’s face turning a bright red while Zim’s was more of a pale pink tint to his green skin.  
“Y/N!!! You ASS! GIMME THAT!” Dib cried, trying to snatch the photo from his friend’s hand, who simply stood up and held it behind their back.  
“Oh come ooon, Dib. Get your own copy!” they teased, making Dib’s blush even worse. He tried to grab it again, but Y/N stuck their foot out and he tripped, falling to the concrete with a loud smack.  
“OW! Y/N YOU MOTHERFUCKER!”  
“Hehe, sorry~”

After riding the rest of the roller coasters and playing some more games, the day was finally coming to its conclusion. The group agreed that riding the Ferris wheel would be a good end to the day, and made their way to the gigantic circular ride.  
As the four stepped into the cart and sat down, Dib noticed the hues of the sky; a beautiful amalgamation of pinks, oranges, and golds painted the atmosphere, as well as fluffy clouds that only made the sky look that much more mystical. The golden glow of the sun felt pleasant against his pale face, and he smiled.  
“What are you smiling about?” his sister asked, eyes down at her game once again.  
“The sky’s really pretty right now,” he answered as he took out his phone, “I think I’m gonna record it or take a few pictures.”  
“Is this another human sentimental thing, Dib-stink?” Zim’s brash voice cut in, and Dib sighed before nodding.  
“Yes, Zim, it’s another ‘human sentimental thing.’”  
Everyone went quiet as the Ferris wheel began to slowly rotate, sending the group’s cart in a gradual ascension. In the distance, cheerful music and happy screams could be heard. There was also a bunch of lanterns hung up in a nearby street, with vendors, merchants, and others who wanted to sell their wares.  
A festival.  
Y/N noticed the gathering of people and smiled, sitting on their knees in the cart and carefully peering over the edge to watch as people walked up and down the decorated street. Dib, being the watchful teenage boy he was, noticed and was about to ask his best friend what they were doing when his heart skipped a beat.  
Y/N’s bright E/C eyes were illuminated by the setting sun, giving them a shine like beautiful golden glass. Their S/T face was washed in a warm glow, and the breeze from everyone’s increased elevation made their H/C, H/L hair flow, giving them an almost mystical aura. And to top it all off, Y/N’s peaceful expression as they held their face with one hand practically melted Dib’s heart right there.  
He snapped a picture with his phone before he could even realize it.  
BOOM!  
The sound of explosions smacked Dib right back into reality, and he jolted.  
“GAH! EXPLOSIONS! IS EARTH UNDER ATTACK?!” Zim cried, throwing himself to the floor of the cart.  
Y/N and Gaz laughed, and suddenly Dib knew what was happening.  
Behind them, fireworks from the nearby festival were being lit off, illuminating the darkening sky with neon lights and sparkles. Cheering could be heard from the ground below.  
“Nah Zim, Earth isn’t under attack. Those are just fireworks,” Dib explained, scratching the black fuzz that he had been growing out on his chin, desperately trying to cool off his warm face.  
“Fire… works?”  
“Yes,” Y/N inputted, “We humans like bright and colorful things for celebrations, so we invented fireworks to shoot off during festivals and such, like those people down there are doing right now.”  
“What are they celebrating anyways?” Zim asked, shakily sitting back where he was supposed to.  
“Hell if I know- Ooh! Hey, do you guys wanna get pictures? I’m sure your dad will appreciate it!” Y/N blurted, taking out their professional camera. Dib and Gaz looked at each other, before shrugging.  
“Sure, why not?” they replied at the same time.  
“Wait, what’s happening? Is Zim included??” the alien interrogated, standing up and grabbing the cart’s center pole.  
“I mean, you can if you want. We’re just taking pictures; more human sentimental stuff.” Gaz replied, before grabbing Y/N and yanking them so they were sitting between her and Dib.  
Y/N pulled out a wall-mounting tripod and attached it to the camera, before turning the camera itself on. They set the countdown for 10 seconds and mounted the camera onto the cart’s pole.  
Y/N quickly sat back down between the Membrane’s and looked at Zim.  
“Hey Spaceboy, if you wanna be in the picture you gotta sit down!”  
The alien blinked before quickly sitting down next to Dib.  
“Everyone smile!” Y/N’s sweet voice ordered, and more fireworks exploded behind the group, just in time for the camera to snap some pictures.  
“...Was that it?” Zim asked, rubbing his sore jaw from grinning as wide as he could for the picture, and the Y/G nodded as they dismounted the camera.  
“We can take some more later if y'all want?” they offered.  
“I’d rather not. I want to go home soon.” Gaz replied, stretching.

As Gaz and Y/N talked, Zim stared at his arch-nemesis, Dib. He couldn’t help but notice the long stare he had given Y/N, and certainly noticed the change in the color of his face. When Dib pulled out his phone and took a picture of them, that right then was when Zim knew something was up. He had never seen the human male act like that before, considering he was around other Y/Gs every day. Why did that only happen with Y/N? Was it a ‘friend thing?’ Zim had no clue.  
But he sure as hell was gonna find out.  
“Oh Y/N, I have a request,” Zim suddenly commanded, “You are to come to my ba-er- I mean hou-”  
“You’re an alien, Zim. I know. You can say base.” Y/N interrupted.  
“DO NOT INTERRUPT THE GREAT ZIM!! Anyways, you are to come to my HOUSE once we are done here. For one of your human ‘sleepovers.’”  
Dib’s eyes widened, and he whipped around to send a death glare at the alien sitting next to him.  
“Absolutely not! They already spent the night at my house last night, so they probably want to go home and rest up a bit! Socially recharge!” he cried, balling his hands into fists.  
“Yeah, sure dude. We can take my bike. I’ll have to stop by my house for a bit though to feed Sumi and pack,” the Y/G answered cooly, and Dib physically deflated.  
“... Y/N why are you like this?”  
“That ain’t none of your business, Dibby.”


	6. The Deal

“See you at school, Y/N,” Dib bid farewell as he enveloped his best friend in a quick hug, bending his neck to avoid the motorcycle helmet they were wearing.  
“Yeah, I’ll see y’all later. And don’t worry Dib, I’ll let you know if Zim is acting funny,” they replied with a smirk (not that it could be seen), before giving Gaz a quick hug before she went inside her house for the night, arms full of stuffed animals, candy, and other prizes she had won while at the carnival.  
Zim scoffed. “Zim does not, has not, and never will act ‘funny’ you brainless monkeys,” the alien sneered from his seat on the motorcycle, his voice slightly muffled from the black helmet over his head.  
Y/N and Dib rolled their eyes and chuckled before Dib grasped his best friend’s shoulder. “Drive safe, okay?” he softly reminded.  
“Pfft, you dweeb, you don’t need to remind me,” Y/N snickered, slightly flustered from the sincere look in Dib’s brown eyes.   
As Dib walked into his house, he waved at the two left outside, before finally closing the front door. Y/N took their seat on their vehicle and turned it on, before pulling out of the driveway and speeding down the street.  
The longer Zim had his arms around the Y/G’s torso, the more his mind wandered to the relationship between Y/N and Dib. Zim despised the fact that he was thinking of such trivial and meaningless things, but he couldn’t help but be nosy. He carefully unwound one arm from Y/N’s belly and pressed a button on the side of his black helmet, allowing him to speak to the human he was holding on to without the rushing wind getting in the way.  
“Hey Y/N-human, what is your affiliation with the Dib-stink?” he asked the human and watched them cock their head to the side in confusion before responding, bringing their own hand to their helmet button.  
“Affiliation? You mean my relationship? With Dib?” they clarified.  
“Of course, what else could I mean?” Zim sassed, tightening his grip around Y/N as they turned a corner. Man, he was currently hating the helmets that Y/N had for his use; they uncomfortably squeezed his antennae against his head and made it slightly more difficult to hear, even with the inner radios Dib installed into them.  
“We’re friends. We have been for a long time. Gosh, it’s been how long? 8? 9 years?” Y/N gasped thoughtfully, slowing down and stopping for a red light, “Yeah, 9 years sounds about right.”  
“That seems like a long time.”  
“For humans, it really is. Especially at my age.”  
“How old are you, anyway?”  
“17 years old. You?”  
“Oh wow, the mighty Zim is much older than you are. Let’s see… I’m around 160 Earth years, I think.”  
“Woah, okay! Damn grandpa, looking good for being ancient. You need a nursing home?”  
“The mighty Zim needs no filthy home of nursing, human!”  
“Ahahahaha~ Just joking with you, Grandpa.”  
“My name is ZIM!”  
“And mine’s Y/N, but you keep calling me ‘human’ or adding human after my name, so I think it’s fair game.”  
The two fell into a joking banter as Y/N waited for the stoplight to turn green. Zim noticed the two were currently driving in an unfamiliar part of town for him; there were tons of small shops and abandoned buildings, as well as colorful graffiti on concrete walls in alleyways. Also, despite the narrow sidewalks and late time of night, there were still people walking down the street. The area was very much alive. Gritty was probably a good word to describe it.  
Zim unconsciously tightened his hold on Y/N as they began to move again on the motorcycle, wind blowing past his green neck. He held back a cackle at a joke Y/N said that he found funny, but didn’t want them to know.  
And then came the headlights.  
“Wa- THIS IS A ONE WAY ROAD! WHO THE HELL-?!” Y/N stammered, slamming the breaks and swerving their motorcycle to the side of the road, hoping that whatever vehicle was heading the wrong way on the road would miss them.  
It didn’t.  
Zim shrieked and fell off the bike as a semi-truck barreled towards them, the large vehicle swerving off the road and kicking up dirt and gravel. The people in harm’s way quickly scattered with frightened screams as the truck scraped against the walls of buildings but showing no signs of slowing down.  
“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK-” Y/N panicked as they realized that themself and Zim were right in the path of the rampaging vehicle and that they didn’t have any time to move.  
And suddenly, time seemed to slow.  
Zim watched in awe as Y/N’s arm shot out in front of them, their S/T hand enveloping itself in bright blue light as their fingers spread out and pointed towards the vehicle. The large semi, which had to be only about 10 feet away at the most from the two jerked to the side a bit, before literally levitating, wheels just barely missing Y/N’s head as it flew into the sky and followed their arm movements. The Y/G lowered their hand and made a fist, which safely lowered the truck and set it back on the ground behind the alien and human.  
The silence was deafening as the witnesses of the event processed what had just happened, the multiple pairs of eyes widened to the size of saucers. Zim shakily stood up and sat back on the motorcycle, wrapping his arms back around Y/N’s torso.  
He realized they were trembling like a leaf.  
All of a sudden, cries and gasps rang out. Fingers were pointed, people stared, and it was all directed at the Y/G that Zim was holding on to.  
“An esper?!”  
“Holy shit, that person on that motorcycle is a psychic!”  
“An esper! A real esper! Am I dreaming?!”  
“Do you think they worship the devil?”  
“Oh my God, that was telekinesis!”  
Y/N’s knuckles tightened on the handlebars of their motorcycle, the fear suddenly registering in their mind as a middle-aged man began to approach.  
“Um, excuse me, are you a psychi-”  
SKRRRRRRRRRT!!!  
The man didn’t get to finish as Y/N’s foot slammed on the gas, much to Zim’s panic, and zoomed away.

The duo on the motorcycle didn’t say a word until Y/N pulled into the driveway of an old trailer 15 minutes later. It was fairly small with a dirty grey and red exterior, the few windows covered with white curtains inside. A tan awning jutted out from above the screen and glass door, keeping the small steps and platform beneath it dry. There were fairy lights strung up in the rain-shielded areas, though they were turned off.  
After stashing their helmets away, Y/N pulled out a blue tarp from beneath the trailer and tossed it over their motorcycle, fully covering it, before unlocking their door. Zim’s antennae perked up beneath his wig when he heard shuffling from inside, and looked at Y/N curiously, who grinned sheepishly in return.  
“I have a dog,” they said, before opening the door.  
WOOF!  
Zim nearly shrieked as the said dog suddenly shoved past the door, large fluffy tail wagging rapidly. The dog stood up on its hind legs to lick its owner’s face, and Zim realized just how tiny he was; or how large the dog was, to be precise.  
It was a Tibetan mastiff, with thick, solid black fur. A large, red collar with spikes and a star-shaped tag hung at its neck, jingling along with Y/N’s lighthearted laughter as it licked their face, and was showered with love and gentle scratches in return. But most importantly, even when standing on all fours, the dog was taller than Zim. He already felt small standing next to Dib and Y/N, but now a literal animal was taller than him too!  
After the dog got its dose of pets, it trotted back inside, but not before giving Zim’s hand a curious lick. Y/N looked over their shoulder to the alien who was staring at them uncomfortably.  
“You can come in. It’s getting chilly out,” the Y/G offered, before stepping inside. A particularly nippy gust of wind grazed Zim’s face and he shivered, and quickly shuffled inside after Y/N and shut the door.  
The inside looked much nicer than the outside. The whole trailer was just one room, minus a closet and another door that lead to an obvious bathroom. Just like the exterior, there were fairy lights that hung around the perimeter of the ceiling, adding a warm ambiance to the place. In the living room/kitchen/bedroom, there was a clean black stove and granite counters on the left side with everything a person could ever want/need in a kitchen including a coffee maker, toaster, microwave, electric mixer, etc. A small island across from the sink was surrounded by a few stools with comfortable looking cushions, and a succulent in the middle of the countertop as a centerpiece.  
The back wall held a polished wooden dresser with a mirror. Atop the dresser sat various video games and their respective consoles, more pieces of paper, more trinkets, and a card. There were colorful sticky notes along the edges of the mirror with handwritten notes in colorful gel pens, mostly encouragement and inspiring quotes.  
To the right of the room was a loft bed with untidy blankets and a polished wooden writing desk with a laptop. Small trinkets littered the desk as well as some pieces of paper and a desk lamp. There were a few black bean bags on the carpeted floor facing a TV monitor mounted to the wall above a medium-sized radiator. Posters and polaroid photos were tacked to the walls, including a photo of Y/N with Dib, Gaz, Professor Membrane, and the large dog that was curled up next to the radiator.  
“... Your house is much smaller than I thought it would be, but it is… not awful,” Zim commented, staring at a photo of the large dog as a puppy tacked to the wall. It was captioned ‘Sumi, my new best friend!!! :D’  
“Thanks,” Y/N replied, voice laced with annoyance. They walked over to their desk and peeked below it, before pulling out a duffel bag from beneath it. “I’m going to pack. Make yourself at home.”  
Despite the surprising cozy comfort of the trailer, Zim felt awkward as he sat in the rolling desk chair, the situation with the semi-truck almost killing them still fresh in his mind.  
Zim knew what psychic powers were; he’s encountered them before with other intergalactic lifeforms. However, he didn’t expect a human of all creatures to have them. They seemed too… primitive to have such abilities. Had Zim really underestimated humanity?  
“So, uh, Y/N… How long have you been able to… y’know…” he stammered, feeling nervous as he spun in the spinny chair to relieve some stress. Sumi walked up to him and put his head in Zim’s lap, causing the alien to flinch away in discomfort. However, an inscrutable glare at him from Y/N made him cautiously run his 3 fingered hand over the dog's large head, who’s furry black tail began to wag in content.   
“How long I’ve had psychic abilities?” Y/N clarified as they stuffed some clothing into the bag with one hand, the other one absentmindedly fiddling with the glowing purple crystal around their neck, not noticing they clicked it on, “Honestly, I’ve had them since as long as I can remember. I just… don’t like using them.”  
“Why not? Aren’t they useful? You could take over the world with them, you know!”  
Y/N cringed. “They’ve… caused me some... issues in the past that I REALLY don’t want to talk about. I’d rather not use them if I can help it.”  
“Wait, what happe-”  
“I SAID that I DON’T WANT to TALK ABOUT IT,” Y/N growled, a noticeable flash of an unnatural light sparking in their pupils that shot a sliver of fear down Zim’s spine.  
He didn’t say a word for the rest of the time he was in Y/N’s house.

After packing, driving to Zim’s house, and setting up a decent sleeping area in Zim’s questionable living room, Y/N and Zim, along with GIR, took the trash can elevator into the lab.   
As the 3 descended, Y/N became nervous.  
“You’re not gonna… experiment on me, are you?” they asked Zim, who was watching GIR spin like a Beyblade around the elevator in annoyance.  
“I wouldn’t consider them experiments, but more like mild tests a human would receive at their human hospitals,” Zim replied nonchalantly, leaning against the side of the elevator.  
“... You mean like X-rays and blood tests and stuff?”  
“Yes. I may monitor your brain waves as well.”  
“Will any of this… hurt?” Y/N questioned nervously, once again fiddling with their necklace. Zim shook his head.  
“The most painful thing would be the needle that’ll take your blood for sampling.”  
As soon as the elevator doors opened to the lab, Zim’s PAK opened, revealing 5 spindly arm-like machines that grabbed Y/N by their limbs and torso. The Y/G yelped in shock.  
“ZIM! WHAT THE FUCK!” they protested, struggling against the cold metallic restraints. Zim cackled madly, bringing Y/N in front of him so he could stare into their angered face.  
“Silly human! You’ve fallen right into the ALMIGHTY ZIM’S TRAP!!!” he grinned mischievously, before grabbing at his wig and eye contacts. He ripped them off and threw them to the side, revealing his antennae and non-pupiled magenta eyes.  
“I, ZIM, am no HUMAN! I’M AN IRKEN INVADER! AND I AM GOING TO TAKE OVER YOUR MISERABLE LITTLE PLANET! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!”  
Y/N’s anger and fear melted off when they realized that Zim just wanted to reveal himself. “Yeah, I know.”  
“AHAHAHA- wait, you knew?”  
“Yup.”  
“You… yOU LIE! YOU LIIIIIIIIIIEEE!” Zim cried, pointing a shaking finger at Y/N’s face.  
“Dude, I knew you weren’t human since you first landed on Earth,” Y/N deadpanned, “Your skin is bright fucking green, you wear an obvious wig that looks like a 12-year-old’s first anime cosplay, your skin literally steams when it touches the rain, you’re completely unaware of human customs, and you can only eat refined sugary shit to survive. None of that is normal in the slightest. Shit dude, even this base looks like it was built with a vague idea of what a house is supposed to look like. You’re not slick at all.”  
An awkward silence fell between the two again, with Y/N staring directly into Zim’s soul, and said alien desperately trying to avoid eye contact. The awkward silence was broken as Zim carefully released Y/N from his clutches.  
“... Hey Zim, let’s make a deal,” the Y/G offered, and Zim’s green head perked up, making his antennae bounce along. His face contorted into one of confusion, and then mistrust.   
“... What kind of deal?” he inquired, leading Y/N to a room in his lab with a couple squishy looking chairs and a large computer.  
“Let me go into detail for a moment,” Y/N stated, sitting down in the chair that wasn’t next to the computer, “Unfortunately for me, people with psychic abilities aren’t considered… normal. We’re seen as either scientific anomalies, a danger to the public, or just… things that shouldn’t exist. Abominations. Just like aliens like you.”  
For once, Zim was listening intently and quietly and nodded in understanding. He pulled down a shiny helmet-like device from the ceiling and held it in front of Y/N’s face to let them examine it as they continued to explain.  
“Just like aliens, if we’re exposed to the public, we’re… placed on some sort of government watchlist. I’ve seen other espers just like me disappear from existence after accidentally revealing themselves in public. Friends. Family. All just… erased. Gone. I used to have an uncle-”  
“What’s an uncle?”  
“A brother of my dad. Anyways, I used to have an uncle. His name was Nicholai Perez, and he was an esper just like me. He could make objects levitate, he could read people’s thoughts, and even project his own thoughts to their minds. He could teleport. He had… amazing power. Now, keep in mind that my uncle was a really nice dude. Like, super kind. Cooked food to give away free to the homeless, adopted and fostered children and actually treated them well, things like that. He never put anyone into any danger if he could help it.  
One day, my parents dropped me off at his house to babysit me for a week. We had fun and went out for ice cream and things like that. But on our way home, we were stopped by some men on the street. It was late at night, and they had backed my uncle and I into an alleyway with a dead end. The men said to my uncle that they wanted me, to give me up or else they’d kill him. Obviously, my uncle refused and fought the men off. One of them had a knife and tried to stab my uncle with it. He hit the knife out of the man’s hands and used his telekinesis to stab the man in the back with it. The other man actually got a hold of me, and my uncle panicked and used his telekinesis again. But this time, he lifted the man off the ground and smashed him repeatedly against the walls of the alley. The men learned their lesson and ran away.  
But the next day, I woke up to my parents dragging me back to our house. I asked my dad where my uncle was, why I wasn’t still at his house. You know what my dad told me?”  
Zim shivered at the suddenly darkened tone of Y/N’s voice and reluctantly shook his head. “No. What did he say?”  
“He said…” Y/N took a deep, shaky breath, “‘Who?’  
The next few months after that were spent searching left and right for him. I checked every registry. Every bank. I even snuck out of my parents' house to go investigate my uncle’s, but when I got there, the house was just… gone. I asked his neighbors. I emailed other relatives. His own mother. I asked them all where he was. They all asked the same thing.  
...  
‘Who?’”

The room felt tense. Even the computer didn’t say anything snarky as Zim gave orders on what brainwaves to scan from the helmet now placed on Y/N’s head. The Y/G absentmindedly levitated the pop can that GIR had offered to them during their spiel, separating the liquid and the can and making fun shapes with the pop.   
“... Why are you telling this to Zim?” the alien asked, adjusting some dials on the shiny helmet that sat atop the psychic’s head.  
“Because you can be trusted with this info.”  
Zim whipped around to face the esper, shock evident on his green face. “... Why is that so?”  
Y/N’s hard E/C stare peered into Zim’s magenta, bug-like eyes, and their mouth pressed into a hard line before answering. “Because we’re in the same situation. If either of us are exposed, we’ll be kidnapped, and erased; Most likely taken to some top-secret laboratory and experimented on and tortured till we die.”  
“The great ZIM would never allow that to happen to himself! Besides, didn’t you expose yourself already today by making that… thing float?” he asked, and noted how Y/N seemed to flinch at the mention of the day’s earlier events before they glared at the alien.   
“You’ve already exposed yourself, Zim. To me. I was there when you first landed here on Earth. I saw you built your base, and I recorded every second of it. I have your visage all on a little file that I could easily share with the rest of the world with the press of a button. Oh, and not to mention that Dib knows as well, and is hellbent on exposing you. Fuck, if he knew that I was a psychic, he might go berserk against me too. That’s another reason why I want to make this deal with you.”  
It was Zim’s turn to flinch, obviously feeling threatened as his antennae flattened against his head. There was no way he was going to attack Y/N, seeing as how they could kill him in an instant with their powers, and now they had blackmail on him too? He grit his sharp teeth, before glaring back at the Y/G.  
“... What’s this ‘deal’ you keep speaking of?” he snarled, and Y/N smirked, albeit a bit nervously.  
“Alright, here it is: I’ll help you blend in with humanity, and stop helping Dib with his plans to expose you. In return, you will help me cover up my powers, including Dib, and you’ll help hide me if I really did expose myself to the world earlier tonight. Sound like a deal?”  
Zim hummed to himself in thought, weighing his options. This was the first planet he’s ever been on that’s been so dangerous for him. I mean, c’mon. Acid rain? Psychics? A government that kidnaps and erases ‘abnormal’ people from society so they could do horrible experiments on them?  
Zim was an idiot, but he’d be an even bigger idiot if he refused. Besides, this deal would benefit both parties.  
“...I, the Almighty Zim, accept your request, human.”  
“I told you to call me Y/N.”  
“Oh yeah, sorry about that.”  
“... Should we shake on this? You know, to seal the deal?” Y/N suggested, and held out their hand. Zim stared down at their hand, before nodding and grabbing Y/N’s hand with his own gloved one. Y/N grinned and shook his hand.  
“It’s a deal.”

Dib’s brown eyes were wide. This couldn’t have been real, could it? Did he really just watch his best friend conspire against him with his enemy?  
Well, Dib supposed it couldn’t really be conspiring against him; after all, Y/N just said they simply wouldn’t help him anymore, and for them, that meant just watching things unfold from the sidelines as a bystander, and he couldn’t really get mad at them for that. But at the same time…  
His heart clenched with betrayal, and even heartbreak.  
“I have your visage all on a little file that I could easily share with the rest of the world with the press of a button. Oh, and not to mention that Dib knows as well, and is hellbent on exposing you. Fuck, if he knew that I was a psychic, he might go berserk against me too.”  
Did… did Y/N not really trust him?  
His heart clenched even more at the thought as he took off his headphones, leaning back in his chair and groaning into his hands.  
Dib knew that he liked the paranormal. Hell, he’s been chasing cryptids, hunting down ghosts, and listening to alien radio talk for years. But all of that, he did with Y/N.  
His best friend.  
His only friend.  
Dib didn’t even realize he was crying until he felt the hot tears tickle his neck. He whimpered, before ripping his glasses off of his face and chucking them full force at his mattress and holding his face in his hands once again, this time resting his elbows on his desk. He sobbed as his thoughts overtook him.  
His best friend was afraid of him. They thought that if he knew about their psychic abilities, he’d dissect them or something. Did he say something to make them afraid? Did he do something?  
… Oh god, that was the stupidest thought that had ever crossed his mind. Of course, he’s done both. He’s talked about wanting to dissect the brains of people with psychic powers before, that was if they existed, and apparently, they did. His best friend turned out to be one. Not to mention he constantly dragged Y/N along for his stakeouts and hunts for the paranormal, only further solidifying their thoughts on his obsession. Now that he thought about it, he really should’ve seen Y/N’s true nature before; they always seemed to know when a house was actually haunted or if it was just a hoax. They could probably see spirits.  
But he supposed Y/N wasn’t going to be with him anymore on those stakeouts. Well, maybe they would, but not if it involved Zim.   
A sudden headache shot through Dib’s skull, and he grunted and rubbed his temple in pain. He was overthinking this too much. He looked up at his alarm clock and saw it was about 9:30 at night. Normally he went to bed at midnight so he could watch Mysterious Mysteries, but he supposed he could miss tonight's episode. It was going to be a rerun anyway. He had a lot on his mind to absorb. He realized that the necklace he made for Y/N was still recording, and shut it off for them from his computer; they probably didn’t even mean to turn it on in the first place.  
Dib yawned and wiped his tear-stained eyes as he crawled into bed, not caring that his glasses fell onto the floor as he pulled the UFO patterned blanket over his tired body. The moment his head hit his soft pillow, Dib fell into a deep sleep.

Gaz slowly opened the door to her brother’s room, and nearly grinned when she saw that Dib was asleep. Looking at his computer, Gaz realized that he didn’t even bother to turn it off, as the screen was still turned on and it was opened to a file called ‘ZIMINFO.mp4’. She rolled her eyes, but took out the flash drive she had in her pocket anyways and plugged it into the computer. She opened up Dib’s file folder and wasn’t surprised to find nearly 200 files, all labeled something along the lines of ZIMS PLANS or ZIM BEING EVIL. What she was surprised to find was a fairly new file. This one was simply labelled ‘Friend.zip’, and it was created a little under an hour ago. Cocking her eyebrow, Gaz copied the file onto her flash drive, before searching for other odd files that Dib had. There were about 5, one of them simply being labeled Necklace.cam.  
The word suspicious was the only word that came to mind as Gaz skimmed through the contents of the files, before deciding to copy them to the flash drive as well. Finally, quiet as a mouse, Gaz removed the flash drive from the computer and snuck out of her brother’s room, before quietly closing the door and sneaking back to her own room. 


	7. Last Time I Checked, Sleepovers Were Supposed To Be Fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween, y'all! Have some angsty plot shit.

‘Yeeees, these readings are very interesting. Very much so,’ Zim thought to himself as his magenta eyes scanned the brainwave graph that was currently being printed.

As the alien had promised to Y/N, all tests and experiments he involved them in were painless. The most painful thing that the Y/G had endured while in Zim’s lab was when GIR accidentally nudged a voltage meter too high, and only briefly shocked them while they were using telekinesis to levitate a 70-pound weight.

Zim had a hole in his lab wall now, but he didn’t mind. Y/N’s powers were very interesting, indeed.

The Irken invader turned to the psychic as the graph he was reading finished printing. “Human! I mean Y/N! Your brain scan is ready!” he announced, a prideful grin on his face. However, his grin dropped when he received no answer. He growled and looked up from the graph to glare at the Y/G. “Y/N! Are you ‘staring into space’ aga-”

Zim cut himself off when he realized that Y/N wasn’t staring off into space, but was, in fact, asleep.

Zim huffed. He would’ve woken up the sleeping psychic, but after even just briefly glancing at his desk, he realized that he had conducted way more experiments with the Y/G than he had originally intended to, if the piles of photos, X-rays, and other graphs said anything.

No wonder Y/N fell asleep.

The alien sighed, a small dilemma crossing his mind. He didn’t want to just leave Y/N asleep in the lab; they were taking up precious space that Zim could use for other experiments! That, and sleeping in a chair would suck dookie for them later on (Oh, the neck pain!).

However, at the same time, Zim didn’t want to wake up the psychic either. He didn’t even have a bed in the lab to move them to, and if he carried them to their weird blanket nest they made on his couch upstairs, they would most likely wake up.

When Zim finally came to a decision, he sighed.

“Computer!” he whisper-screamed, and the AI let out an annoyed robotic sigh.

“What?” it whispered back.

“Take the Y/N-human to their blanket nest upstairs, and be discreet with it! Don’t wake them up!”

“Ugh, fine.”

Zim hummed in satisfaction as robotic arms lowered from the ceiling and carefully picked up Y/N, before taking them up through the ceiling in a silent and dark chute.

“Hmm, maybe I should have the Y/N-being over more often. The computer is much more obedient with them around,” Zim noted as he sat down in his seat and began organizing his findings.

“Don’t get used to it,” the computer grumbled.

After logging all of his current findings with Y/N, Zim opened up something the humans called ‘Google’, and searched around, mainly for human articles about psychic powers. However, there was something that kept him from focusing.

Zim’s mind kept wandering to Y/N’s small but comfortable trailer they called home. While he was there, he couldn’t help but notice how… empty? No… that wasn’t the word for it. How… void of life? No, that wasn’t the word for it either.

…

OH YEAH!

Zim noticed the lack of any parental influence within that trailer. There were only 2 rooms, one being a bathroom and the other being a combo of a bedroom, kitchen, and living room. There was only one small bed, so that meant that only 1 person was sleeping there. And considering human standards, wasn’t it abnormal for a teenager to be living alone?

Where the hell were Y/N’s parents?

With his original train of thought gone, Zim opened up multiple new tabs and began to research once again, but this time about human parental relationships.

He searched through the latest hours of the night, reading articles, checking sources, and trying to pick apart his psychic colleague’s relationships to determine why they were living by themselves. Eventually, after the clock in his lab showed the time to be 4:30 am, Zim came across a word that seemed to click everything into place, or at least provide a temporary explanation.

Emancipation.

Upstairs, GIR was sitting beside a sleeping Y/N on the couch, the TV blaring some late-night animal show. He was tangled in some of the blankets that Y/N was curled up into, but GIR didn’t mind.

Knock knock!

The robot perked up and freed himself from the confines of the blankets, before pulling his dog hood on over his metallic head. He marched over to the front door and swung it open, revealing a woman in her early 30s.

She had tanned skin, thick black hair tied into a ponytail, and black sunglasses that hid her eyes. She was wearing a Bloaty’s Pizza uniform and carried within her arms 3 large boxes of what GIR assumed to be pizza. Oddly enough, she looked as if she had been attacked, as she bruises, scratches, and bite marks all along her arms, face, and neck.

The woman stared down at GIR for a few moments, before nervously chuckling. “U-Uh, pizza delivery! There’s no need to pay, someone else paid for you… May I come in?”

GIR stared at the strange woman, then to the pizza in her hands. The woman began to sweat, lips pursed into an obviously forced and nervous smile.

“COME OOOOON IIIIIIN!!” GIR suddenly shrieked, swiping the pizza from the woman’s hands and running into the kitchen, cackling like a maniac.

“... That was easy,” the woman mumbled to herself before stepping into the odd house.

Behind her shades, dark brown eyes scanned the area, sweeping from left to right. She made a noise of slight disgust at how filthy the walls were, grease, dirt, and who knows what else caked to the wallpaper. She could see GIR in the kitchen, devouring the pizza with vigor.

And finally, her eyes landed on the Y/G sleeping peacefully on the couch, surprisingly undisturbed from GIR’s earlier volume.

‘Jackpot,’ the woman thought to herself, pressing the microphone button on her earpiece.

“HQ, this is Miss Piggy for Mission Witchhunt. I’ve infiltrated the esper’s base,” she quietly reported and smiled at her boss’s voice when he replied.

“Are you sure it’s them?” he asked, and the woman looked at her black wristwatch. Where the hands of the watch should’ve been was a type of counter. The closer the woman stepped to Y/N, the higher the numbers became. The woman smiled.

“Absolutely positive.”

“Wonderful,” her boss complimented, “Just take photos and notes for now; we don’t want anyone getting suspicious.”

“Of course, boss. I’ll be back soon.”

The woman took out her cell phone from her pocket, kneeling next to the sleeping teenager, who was slightly kicking around in their sleep and murmuring to themselves. A twinge of guilt hit her gut, knowing full-well what was going to eventually happen to the esper. However, the woman shook off those thoughts and began to snap pictures of Y/N from as many angles as possible.

Or, at least she tried.

The woman yelped as her phone screen suddenly became hot, before completely shattering in her hands.

“What the-”

The woman was cut off by a deafening scream ripping through Y/N’s throat as they began to thrash about beneath their blankets.

“N-NOoooo- ge-gET AWAY FROM ME…!” They cried out, and the woman noticed their H/L, H/C hair was floating around their face, defying gravity. Beneath their S/T skin, small streaks of light could be seen, flowing through facial veins into their head.

The woman yelped at what felt like electricity grazing her skin, the hairs on her arms standing on end.

“You- I WON’T Let you cUT ME OPEN!!” Y/N sobbed in their sleep, and the woman yelled as a sudden wave of force slammed into her, rocketing her back into the television. The glass from the screen shattered, but didn’t fall to the floor; instead, it levitated and flew in random directions, shredding everything in its path, including the woman’s back. She screamed and wheezed as she was suddenly dropped to the floor, gravity seeming to have become stronger. However, the woman pushed through and managed to shakily stand up and stumble to the front door, flinging it open. She cringed as another scream ripped through Y/N’s throat, and this time, the woman was flung a lot farther than just into the TV.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” Y/N shrieked, and in their terror, they created yet another wave of force, this time strong enough to rocket the woman out the door and into the street, as well as shatter every window in Zim’s house with a blast.

The woman’s vision went blurry as she laid in the street, tears leaking from her eyes. God, she was in so much pain. She could feel the glass embedded in her back shift as she tried to sit up, and choked out an agonized sob. Shakily, she turned on her earpiece once again.

“H-HQ… Mi-Miss Piggy… glass…” she tried to explain and grit her teeth as a shiver ran up her spine.

“Save your breath. The pickup team is close by. They’re on their way,” her boss replied, his voice laced with worry.

The woman smiled, and let her body relax a bit; Lord knows she needed to.

“Thanks.”

Beneath the main floor, Zim was panicking. He had been doing research when everything started to suddenly shake, and his screens cut to static. Even GIR was acting funny, now standing completely still next to the elevator as if he was frozen in time. He was covered in pizza grease which wasn’t unusual, but it was REALLY late at night; there shouldn’t have been any pizza shops open at this time.

“COMPUTER!” Zim cried out in alarm, “TELL ME WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS INSTANT!”

The computer tried to answer, but its words only came out a staticky, garbled mess of words that couldn’t even be placed as gibberish. Zim huffed, trying to calm himself down; panicking wouldn’t do him any good, and he didn’t want to alarm Y/N-

“Wait. Y/N!!!” the alien gasped to himself before scrambling to the elevator, “Oh I swear if they’re doing this on purpose…!”

Zim pressed the button on the wall next to the elevator and growled when it did absolutely nothing. He pressed it a few more times, angrily mashing his pointer finger into the red button.

Still nothing.

He huffed as he began to sweat, and cursed under his breath.

“I guess I have no choice…”

Zim unsheathed 6 legs from his PAK, lifting himself off the ground. Using the two sharp ends of the front legs, he shoved them into the crack of the elevator doors and pried them open, successfully granting the Irken access to the elevator shaft. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the elevator itself was stuck in the bottom of the shaft.

‘At least I don’t have to worry about it crushing me alive,’ Zim thought bitterly to himself, before jumping into the elevator shaft.

Before Zim could fall, his PAK legs extended out and pushed against the sides of the shaft walls, holding him in place. He carefully climbed up the elevator shaft, and his antennae twitched as they picked up the sound of screaming coming from the upper floors. Zim had never climbed so fast in his life. As he grew closer to the top of the shaft, the screaming only became louder, and it was obvious it was Y/N who was doing it.

As soon as he made it to the top of the elevator shaft, he kicked open the top, and winced at the sound of the hinges of the elevator’s trash can disguise breaking. However, he shoved the trash can to the back of his mind and scrambled to the living room.

His magenta eyes widened at the poor state of his home. The TV was broken, the monkey picture on the wall was torn in half, all of the windows and lights in the house had been shattered, and a trail of red blood was staining the tiles on the floor, leading to his front door which was wide open. Zim would’ve immediately gone to close it if it weren’t for the hailstorm of glass shards swirling around the vicinity.

He yelped and ducked into the trash can as one of those shards sliced his cheek, and he growled.

“Y/N!!! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!?” he roared, grabbing the trash can lid and holding it in front of him like a shield.

The only answer he received was unintelligible shouts of gibberish from the Y/G, who had fallen off the couch. Zim yelled their name again, trying to get a good look at them. He was thoroughly shocked to find that they were still asleep, but the situation at hand was definitely their doing. Their hair was standing on end, and jagged streaks of light seemed to flow out of their body like lightning, their body convulsing as if having a seizure. Zim’s antennae lowered when he realized they were crying as well, eyes red and puffy. He mentally prayed that they were uninjured.

“Y/N! HEY! CAN YOU EVEN HEAR ME?!” Zim called out to Y/N, raising his makeshift shield to block a wave of glass and other debris. They didn’t answer, and he cautiously stepped out of the trash can and took careful steps towards the esper. He could feel the powerful psychic energy rolling off of them in waves; he had to be careful unless he wanted to get torn to pieces.

Zim had done enough research on humans by now to know what nightmares were; he fully intended to conquer Earth, enslave the human race, and give them nightmares from the mere mention of his name, after all. But no amount of research could’ve prepared him for this. While he would never admit it, he was terrified, for both himself and the psychic in front of him. He could feel their terror, the wretched emotion sending harsh shivers down his spine and twisting his squeedilyspooch into a knot.

This wasn’t just a nightmare, this was actual hell, and Zim knew he had to do something or face the consequences.

He took another careful step towards the unconscious human in front of him, using his PAK legs and the trash can lid as a shield from the onslaught of levitating objects whipping through the room. Sparks rained down from the busted light fixtures, just barely giving him enough light to see.

He called out Y/N’s name again, this time trying to wake them up instead of gain their attention. He stepped closer, nearly slipping on some smaller shards of glass on the floor that weren’t being flung around.

Zim called out their name again, then stepped closer, then repeated, fighting off the urge to simply dive back into his lab and wait out this storm. He did this until he was right next to the Y/G.

Then, he raised one gloved hand and slapped Y/G across the face, the sound of the smack echoing through the house.

Immediately, everything that had been levitating dropped with a shatter, and Y/N’s E/C eyes flew open.

They sat up quickly, gasping for air, and cold sweat running down their face. Their eyes were wide, irises flitting around to gather and make sense of their surroundings. When they realized they were only in Zim’s house, they shakily exhaled and hid their face in their equally shaky hands.

Zim stared at the Y/G, not knowing what to say. Everything was completely silent and dark, minus the sparking of the ruined lights and the crickets chirping outside.

Finally, Zim took a deep breath.

“Human. Tell Zim what happened. Why did you destroy my base?” he softly questioned, afraid to set off the esper sitting in front of him.

“I…” Y/N hesitated, before sniffling, “I didn’t mean to… This wasn’t supposed to happen…”

“Obviously. I knew that humans occasionally had nightmares, but I didn’t think they’d be so over the top.”

Y/N laughed bitterly. “It was a lot fucking worse than over the top. I wish it was just a nightmare…”

“... Can you explain what happened? What set you off?”

The psychic went silent for a few moments, before waving their hand. The front door which was previously open shut with a soft click.

“It’s… It’s not something I like to really… talk about, but let’s just say that I haven’t had… the best childhood. Honestly, I probably have PTSD and should go to therapy, but therapy is just so expensive! If I started going to therapy, I probably wouldn’t be able to afford hot water. Or food. Or anything, really.”

Zim tilted his head at the human’s ramblings. This was the most he’s ever learned about the Y/G in a single day, and definitely the most serious talk he’s had with them. He felt a twinge of something in his equivalent of a stomach; what was that? Sorrow? Hate?

… No, it was empathy.

Ugh, how disgusting.

Zim noticed Y/N’s anxiety as they spoke and spilled their thoughts to him. The way they fumbled with their weird necklace crystal, the trembling of their bottom lip as they held back tears that glossed their eyes, and their usual casual and carefree attitude gone, as if it was never there in the first place. The alien sighed, catching the esper’s attention.

“Zim, are you mad at me…?” they reluctantly and almost fearfully asked, and Zim felt that pang in his chest once again.

“... No, Human. I’m just… taken aback. Is there… anything the Almighty Zim can do to help?” the alien asked and frowned when Y/N began to tremble just enough for him to notice. The human took a deep breath.

“... I don’t think I can be alone right now, but staying awake won’t be good for me either,” they replied, and their E/C eyes scanned the room, “We should sleep in the lab for now. This place is trashed. Once again, I’m really sorry about that… I promise I’ll clean it up as soon as I-”

“Nonsense. This ordeal isn’t your fault. And besides, the computer can do the cleaning. If you need rest, then rest. It won’t be comfortable, but I’m sure there’s an area in the lab for you to sleep.” Zim nonchalantly offered. Y/N gave the alien a shaky smile; it was small, but it was very clear that it was fuelled by genuine gratitude.

Zim froze as the esper suddenly wrapped their arms around him, hands resting just above his PAK.

“Thank you, Zim. I owe you one.” Y/N smiled, squeezing the alien gently in their grasp.

Zim’s mind was blanking from their unforeseen touch but hesitantly hugged back. He mentally prayed he was doing it right; Irkens weren’t used to such affection, after all.

After gathering up and shaking out the blankets of any debris or glass that could’ve gotten into or onto them, the duo took the now working elevator back down into the lab. Y/N made another blanket nest, this time accompanied by Zim who refused to let the human leave his sight. They made the nest beneath one of the desks in the computer room, creating a makeshift fort.

“Hah, it really feels like a sleepover now,” Y/N had jokingly commented as Zim moved his computer chair next to the Y/G, taking a seat and rebooting the large computer screen in front of him.

“Yeah, whatever. Just… tug on my leg or something if you need anything.” Zim replied.

“Can do, chief.”

“Ah, I see you have accepted the Almighty Zim as Earth’s overlord! And all it took was you destroying my house in a mental breakdown!”

“Pfft, in your dreams, Spaceboy.”

“Excuse you, HUMAN! My name is ZIM!”

“It’s a nickname, dipshit. And YOU’RE still calling me HUMAN! It’s only fair!”

“Ugh, aren’t you supposed to be sleeping!?”

“I’ll sleep when I feel like sleeping!”

“ARGH! CURSE YOUUUUU!”


	8. Let's Get The FUCK Out Of Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N and Zim find a spot to relocate after realizing someone after Y/N broke in.

Sorry for such a late chapter! School is hard, depression likes to kick my ass, and writer's block doesn't know when to quit. Enjoy!

_____

Zim was awoken by the sound of blankets shuffling next to him, and he yawned, cracking his insect-like magenta eyes open. He felt soft and warm breathing down his neck, making the Irken shudder at the unusual sensation and turn onto his left side to investigate.

Oh, it was just Y/N.

Memories quickly sparked in Zim's mind from the night before (or would earlier that morning be more accurate? Who knows?), and he sat up, cursing to himself in pain after smacking his head on the underside of his desk.

Earlier that night, after helping Y/N with their sleeping arrangements, he had decided to do some more research as the human slept. However, seeing Y/N asleep made Zim sleepy, and he fell asleep in his computer chair. He vaguely remembered crawling under the desk with the psychic to rest more comfortably, the need for sleep clouding his thoughts. God, Y/N wouldn't let him live this down if they caught him next to them. Irkens don't even need sleep!

As Zim untangled himself from the blankets, he was also reminded that he still had to clean up his base after last night's incident. He recalled that there was still broken glass he had to clean up, busted lights to fix, and who knows what else to remedy. After successfully freeing himself, he took the elevator upstairs to the main level so he could properly assess the damage done to his home.

As the alien stepped out of the kitchen toilet, he cringed when his boot crunched some of the glass on the floor. Good thing his boots were made for exploring dangerous areas, or else his feet would be shredded.

With the light of day pouring through his windows, Zim could now properly see all the damage. It looked like the majority of the human household appliances had blown up, some of them still sparking. The light fixtures were broken, but at least they seemed to stop sparking, unlike the other appliances. As expected, there were hundreds of shards of glass on the floor, and Zim was not surprised to find that there wasn't a single window with glass leftover inside the panes. The television was absolutely wrecked and smashed to pieces and the couch was slowly falling apart, bits of stuffing seeming to pour out of the multiple slits in its upholstery. Behind the couch, the large monkey painting was torn in half, the frame falling apart in Zim's hands as he picked it up and set it down elsewhere.

And finally, the alien's eyes met with the drying blood on the floor.

It started as a fairly large puddle in front of the TV, before being smeared a bit towards the middle of the living room with the occasional handprint. Then, the smear was followed by bloody footprints that lead to and out the front door.

He felt his breath hitch. Y/N would've told him if they were injured, right? I mean, they made a deal that was pretty much founded on mutual trust, and Y/N certainly didn't look or act injured, only tired.

"COMPUTER!" Zim roared, and the computer grumbled.

"Ugh, WHAT do you WANT?"

"I need a sample of this blood on the floor PRONTO! Tell me who it belongs to!" the alien ordered, and the computer sighed before a metallic tendril came down from the cracked ceiling with a q-tip and swabbed the blood before disappearing back into the ceiling again. Zim tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the results, before deciding to sweep up the heaping amount of broken glass on the floor.

As he grabbed a broom, Zim heard a yawn and watched as Y/N emerged from the trash can.

"Good to see you are rested, Y/N. Now help the Almighty Zim with cleaning up," he commanded, trying to sweep up the glass in the kitchen into a large pile.

Y/N blinked, before nodding. They stepped out of the trash can and onto the tile flooring, mentally sighing in relief that they had decided to wear slippers. If they hadn't, their feet would've been sliced up by the glass for sure.

Grabbing a garbage bag, Y/N flicked a hand. Their hand covered itself in a familiar glow, and suddenly the air was swirling with glowing glass shards. Zim yelped and scrambled to hide in one of the cupboards, and watched in awe as the glass flew through the air and into the garbage bag. The glass formed a mass similar to a tornado, which grew smaller and smaller until the final shard of glass found its way into the garbage bag.

Y/N tied up the bag before turning towards Zim and gave him an amused smirk upon finding he was cowering in the cupboard.

"You good, Zimmy?" they giggled, and Zim grumbled to himself in embarrassment before trying to wiggle out of the cramped space.

"Zim is perfect. Completely fine," he spat, before grunting in exertion as he continued his efforts to get out of the cupboard. Then, with what sounded like a pop, Zim was free from the cupboard.

"AHA! VICTORY FOR ZIIIIIIM!" he cheered, before losing his balance and face-planting into the now perfectly clean floor.

After Y/N's fit of laughter (much to Zim's further embarrassment), the blood sample was completed, and a screen popped out from the ceiling showing the results.

"It appears the blood in the living room belongs to a human woman named Corona Mendoza. She is 33 years old. Her affiliation is unknown." the computer informed, and Y/N looked at Zim curiously as well as worried.

"Blood in the living room? What's he talking about?"

Zim took a deep breath and stepped into the doorway that connected the living room and the kitchen. "THAT is what he's talking about."

Y/N followed and curiously peeked into the living room, before gasping and covering their mouth with both hands, their eyes wide with horror.

"Oh my God..." the esper whimpered, staggering back from the sheer amount that covered the floor. They turned back to the screen that displayed the woman's face, then back to the blood again.

"Why- why would there be blood in here that isn't mine?" Y/N inquired, and the computer hummed.

"I can show you last night's surveillance if you'd like," the AI offered, and Zim angrily turned to the screen.

"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT SOME STRANGE WOMAN WAS IN THE ALMIGHTY ZIM'S BASE LAST NIGHT, AND YOU DIDN'T ALARM ME?!" he screeched at the monitor, his PAK responding to his anger and bringing out 4 of his extra legs. Y/N flinched but nodded in agreement with Zim.

"Yeah computer, not gonna lie, that's kinda messed up of you..."

The computer sighed. "Do you wish to see the surveillance or not?"

"OBVIOUSLY!!" Zim yelled again.

The screen in front of the duo suddenly changed, showing the front yard. At around 4:45 am, the woman as seen from the picture walked up to the front door and knocked. The camera switched to the one in the living room, which showed GIR answering the door and allowing the woman in. Zim and Y/N watched in horror as the woman pulled out her cell phone and started taking pictures of the sleeping esper. It was soon after that that the camera began to glitch out, no doubt due to Y/N's night terror. However, between screens of static, it was easy to tell that Corona was flung into the TV- hence the blood- and ran to the front door before being blasted out by Y/N.

Y/N and Zim stared at each other, eyes wide. As the situation settled inside the duo's mind, they both became increasingly more panicked, both of them beginning to sweat.

"Hey Zim, you know what this means, right?" Y/N whispered to the Irken, who understood completely.

Y/N had been found out.

Not even a full 24 hours after using their powers in public, someone found out it was Y/N who was the esper and now they were being stalked.

_They weren't safe anymore._

And to make things worse, Zim could've been discovered as well!

The esper shakily sat down on the floor and held their face in their hands, no longer trusting their legs to hold them. They felt weak, and their stomach lurched inside of them. They broke out into a cold sweat, their heart pounding as if they were running a marathon.

'What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?! WHAT AM I GONNA DO?!' Y/N screamed repeatedly inside their head, feeling hot tears well up in their E/C eyes.

Zim had begun to anxiously pace, mumbling quietly to himself. He had to find a new location, and fast. If he didn't, both of them could be royally fucked over. Zim took a deep breath in a feeble attempt to calm his racing squeedilyspooch.

"Y/N," he called out to the human, "Is there any place you can think of that I can relocate to? Any place at all?"

Y/N paused and wiped their tears from their face, trying to clear their mind to think.

"Um- Uhhhh- I- I think there should be... hold on, I'm freaking the fuck out right now," they groaned, using the wall to help them stand. Zim gripped them by the shoulders, holding them steady.

"You need to THINK, Y/N! To hold up my end of the bargain, I need you to tell me a place I can relocate so we can be safe from your insane human government!" Zim ordered, and Y/N squeezed their eyes shut in an attempt to concentrate.

"I... I think it's on the other side of town. There was some... park of some sort that got shut down, but nobody bothered to demolish it... It was... it was..." the esper stammered, their heart beating in their ears.

"It was WHAT?"

Y/N's eyes flew open in revelation. "It was a water park! Professor Membrane used to take Dib, Gaz and I there all the time in the summer when we were kids until it got shut down. Literally nobody pays any attention to it anymore. Plus, it has a tall border fence and a locked gate, so that's added security!"

Zim grinned, rubbing his hands together. "Perfect. COMPUTER! DISMANTLE THE BASE AT ONCE! WE'RE RELOCATING!"

"UM, ACTUALLY, DON'T DO THAT. At least not right now," Y/N interrupted, and Zim frowned, displeased.

"What? Why?"

"Dude, we're in daylight right now. It would be immediately noticed if a house just dismantled itself. Besides, It would be best if we scoped out the waterpark first to find the best place to make your new base."

"Hmmm," Zim pondered, "You may be right. We shall take the Voot cruiser! Follow me, Y/N-stink!"

"For the LAST TIME! It's rude to put words like stink after someone's name!"

After Zim powered on the Voot cruiser, he helped Y/N inside the ship and sat them in the only other seat, which the Y/G noted to be quite squishy, as well as smell unusually like sugar. GIR would've gone with, but Zim gave the computer specific instructions to put the base on lockdown; GIR was to be the WatchGuard.

Zim sat next to Y/N in the driver's seat and pressed one of the many buttons on the complicated console in front of him, which caused the house to shake before the roof opened up.

Y/N became tense and sucked in a breath.

"What's the matter, Y/N? You're stiff all of a sudden..." Zim commented, messing with the console more. The voot cruiser was beginning to levitate off the ground now, and Y/N held back from grabbing the nearest grounded object and holding on for their life.

"I've... never flown before," the Y/G hesitated, "Not on a plane or ship or anything. I'm kind of nervous..."

Immediately, Zim threw his green head back against the dingy purple cushion of the seat and cackled, making Y/N's face flush in embarrassment.

"That's it? You're scared of flying?! AHAHAHAHA! Silly humans and their silly phobias!" the Irken jested, and Y/N sputtered.

"I-It's not that! It's just that I've never been in any kind of flying machine before, much less one made from advanced alien technology-!"

Y/N yelped and gripped the back of the seat as the Voot cruiser suddenly shot upwards, suspending itself hundreds of feet in the air within a matter of seconds. Y/N squeezed their eyes shut, fully expecting to be flung against the ceiling. However, when the impact never came, the H/C haired Y/G cracked open their eyes, albeit reluctantly. They turned their head to look at Zim for answers, who was staring at them half-lidded with a 100% amused smirk on his face.

"Are you done having your silly little human fit of terror?"

"Go fuck a cactus, you intergalactic slice of burnt lettuce."

As Y/N gave directions to the waterpark, they decided to text Gaz. To them, it made sense to; they were being stalked by some strange lady, and Y/N felt that if Gaz knew that, she'd help them out with anything they needed.

**hey gazlene you got a sec**

**Maybe. What you need?**

**it would appear that im being staked by some lady**

***stalked**

**apparently while i was sleeping over at zimmy boi's house some lady broke in and took some pics of me??? for whatever reason???**

**anyways we researched the woman and found out her names corona mendoza**

**OMG ARE YOU FUCKIGN SERIOSU**

***SERIOUS**

**DUDE IS YOUR HOUSE OKAY???**

Y/N blinked rapidly at their phone screen. They hadn't even thought about that! What if that Corona woman had broken into their house before going to Zim's? Was anything missing? Was Sumi alright?!

All of these thoughts rapidly swirled through Y/N's head like a hurricane as they quickly and messily typed out their response.

**OH MY GOD I DIDN'T EBEN FUCKING THINK ABOUT THAT**

***EVEN**

**DUDE ARE YOU KIDDING ME**

**ITS YOUR GODDAMN HOUSE YOU DUMBASS**

**OKAY DO ME A FAVOR**

**SCOPE THAT SHIT OUT FOR ME, TELL ME HOW THINGS LOOK**

**AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET ME KNOW IF SUMIS OKAY**

**PLEASE???**

**Okay okay lets calm down. Deep breaths you anxious bitch.**

**Ill check it out for you.**

**omg omg gaz thank you ily so much id die for you**

**I sure fuckin hope you wont.**

**You keep a spare key in a pill bottle that you keep buried beneath your steps right?**

**yeah**

**Sick. Ill let you know asap what i find.**

**thank you so much youre a mf saint**

"This is the place, right Y/N?" Zim asked, slowly flying over familiar black gates. The Y/G looked up from their phone in slight surprise but looked to the left. Y/N could see the old grimy sign, its faded out colors and cracked neon lights having seen much better days.

"Wimbleton's Splash Zone... Yup! This is it!" Y/N confirmed, and Zim nodded in understanding before maneuvering the voot cruiser into what appeared to be an old maintenance shed towards the middle of the abandoned park.

Zim shut off the voot cruiser with the push of a button near the left top corner of the console, and the transparent top lifted, allowing the Irken to exit. While he hopped out the ship with ease, Y/N was much shakier, having to take their time to balance themself after getting up from their seat and carefully climbing out.

By the time Y/N managed to get one foot on the cracked concrete, Zim was already out the rusting door, disguise on, and searching for the best spot to rebuild his base.

"Wha-! Hey Zim, no fair! Wait for me!" Y/N cried out, tripping over their own feet and running out the door.

After shutting the door to Dib's car, Gaz pressed the lock button and hummed in satisfaction when the vehicle clicked in response.

Though Gaz didn't show it, the sophomore was nervous. Her hands shook, even as she lifted the familiar flat stone beneath Y/N's stairs, grabbed the dirty orange bottle said stone concealed and removed the silvery key from inside. Her face and neck began to sweat as she shoved the key inside the lock that she's opened many times, and her light brown eyes couldn't help but notice that the door handle felt loose, a drastic change from the last time the girl had visited Y/N, which was only a couple weeks ago.

As Gaz opened the door, its hinges squealed, causing the purple-headed girl to inwardly cringe. Gaz quickly stepped into a defensive position at the sound of heavy paws clicking against the floor but loosened up when she realized it was just Sumi.

But even Sumi was acting weird.

Usually, the large black dog would run at you as fast as he could, before standing up on his hind legs and showering you with kisses while his fluffy tail wagged so hard you could feel its breeze through your clothes. This time around, however, the dog approached slowly, head low and dark brown eyes flicking around cautiously. However, when Sumi realized it was just Gaz who entered, he perked up and trotted over to the girl, tail wagging lightly and tongue lolling out of his mouth. Gaz smiled and gently held the dog's face before kissing him on his fuzzy doggy forehead. After that, the canine sniffed and licked at her hands, before trotting out the front door. Gaz didn't worry about that; Sumi was a well-trained dog and knew not to leave the yard.

What Gaz WAS worried about was the fact that Y/N's trailer was TRASHED.

There were broken dishes on the floor, the shards of ceramic mixing in with shattered glass and mirror from the TV and dresser. The mattress was practically falling off the bed, the sheets and blankets either torn or thrown haphazardly onto the floor. The desk was a mess- well, messier than usual- and every drawer and cupboard in the house was thrown open.

Someone had definitely broken in.

Gaz pulled out her cell phone and snapped as many pictures as she could of the ruined trailer, before sending them to her E/C eyed friend.

**Hey nerd i checked your house for you.**

**As you can tell, the place is a WRECK.**

**Sumi is fine tho, hes using the bathroom outside rn.**

**oh my god**

**what the actual fuck**

**do you think anything was stolen????**

**Idk man i dont keep track of your shit for you.**

**But with how fucked up this place is i wouldn't be surprised.**

**ok**

**shit**

**ill be there asap. zim wants to relocate after having some random bitch breaking into his home**

**were at the old waterpark rn**

**Good to know.**

**Ill stay here for the time being and keep Sumi safe.**

**But im definitely gonna check out zim's new crib once thats done.**

**Now that i think about it i think Sumi scared off the intruder. The place was ransacked but shows a lot of signs of a struggle.**

**i bet sumi slept through most of it and then went 'oh fuck someones in the house'**

**and then went apeshit**

**hes a heavy sleeper you know**

**Yes, believe me, im fully aware.**

**Anyways ill see you later.**

**And let me know exactly where green bean decides to live.**

**sure thing bb**

**luv u**

**Choke on it.**

**;^3**

As Y/N and Zim traversed the concrete lot, the Irken held in his hand a device that sensed where the waterparks water pipes were underground. Every so often, the device would beep and the green-skinned male would peer down at the screen, before grumbling.

"I don't want to have to do any dangerous waterpipe removal after building my base, stupid human!" was Zim's exact words on the subject. Did he listen to reason on why the pipes would be harmless? Nope. Was it getting on Y/N's nerves? Absolutely. However, they trudged on, knowing full well that they had no choice.

The duo had been walking around for maybe 20 minutes. The sun was still fairly high in the sky, but the atmosphere was filled with fluffy white clouds that blotted out the light from the celestial object and seemed to mute the colors of the world around them. Overhead, a swift breeze passed through, causing Zim to shiver and tense. He tried covering his neck more with his uniform collar but to no avail.

"Ugh, stupid Earth wind, making the Almighty Zim uncomfortable..." Zim growled to himself, catching Y/N's attention.

"You know, maybe you wouldn't be so cold if you just started wearing human clothes?" the Y/G suggested, tugging at Zim's pink sleeve which he abruptly yanked away.

"NONSENSE! I, the GREAT ZIM, would NEVER wear your inferior and disgusting human rags!" he cried out in disgust, holding his arms in an attempt to stay warm. Y/N rolled their eyes. Typical Zim, always shooting down any suggestions that could help him. One of these days he was going to get himself killed by doing that.

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Y/N's head.

"Hey Zim, you know our deal?" they asked, and Zim looked at the Y/G confusedly.

"Of course I do!"

"Great, because one of the terms was that I'd help you blend in with humanity. You wanna know what would really help you blend in with humanity, Zim?"

Zim cocked his head, now completely interested. "Tell me immediately!!!" he ordered, and Y/N smirked.

"Wear human clothes."

Zim's interested stare turned into a glare. "No."

"Yes, you absolutely should."

"I absolutely refuse."

Y/N sighed, eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "Zim, you fucking idiot. Earth clothes will protect you from Earth weather, AND you'll look normal to other humans for once!" they snapped, grabbing the back of Zim's tunic and forcing him to look them in the eye, "Do you understand how cold it can get here? You're eventually going to need to wear something other than this thin piece of fabric you call clothing to keep your ass warm and avoid freezing to death! What part of that do you not understand?!"

Zim went silent, his fake purple irises burning into Y/N's own E/C ones. Y/N's face was still slightly red from their outburst but slowly cooled down the longer the air stayed silent. They sneered.

"Well? You gonna just stand there like a feral little green spaceman or are you gonna answer me?"

Zim quickly looked away, avoiding Y/N's harsh gaze.

"... Fine," Zim gulped, "The Almighty Zim will THINK about it. Later. For now, we have to keep searching for my new location."

Of course, he avoided the subject

Y/N rolled their eyes again and sighed before releasing Zim from their grasp, knowing full well he wouldn't listen. The alien was quick to turn around and walk, continuing their search for the perfect base loca-

_BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

"AHA! ZIM IS VICTORIOUS ONCE MORE!" he cheered, eyes glued to the screen of his little device once again.

"Oh? What did you find?" Y/N inquired, walking over and leaning over Zim's shoulder to see the screen. The screen showed... black?

At the Y/G's confusion, Zim whirled around on his heel and confidently explained.

"You see, dear Y/N, in simple human terms, this device shows me exactly where any underground structures are, and how far down they are! The beep tells us when we're in a clear area. A black screen means there's nothing around to dig into at all!"

"But it's beeped multiple times already. Why didn't we stop then?" Y/N asked, tilting their head.

"Oh, it's really quite simple. Those other times my device beeped, there was some weird pipeline far down. There may have been nothing near the surface, but I'm not taking any chances! Here in this location though, there's nothing to run into at all!" the Irken excitedly explained, pulling out a familiar holographic pad.

Y/N's eyes widened, recognizing the pad from when they had first witnessed Zim while he built his first base. Zim pulled out the stylus and was about to draw on the pad before he hesitated.

Then, he placed the technology into Y/N's hands.

"Uhh, what's this for...?" they inquired, twirling the stylus in their hands in fascination.

"It's for designing my superior base, duh! I drew the exterior of my old home with the stylus, turned on its build function, and let the device do the work!"

Y/N froze. "You mean, you basically _drew_ your house into existence?" they gasped, E/C eyes widening in amazement. Zim smirked, his ego swelling within his tiny chest.

"Of course! Quite impressive, especially for you primitive humans! Am I correct?" he boasted, striking a sassy pose that made the human in front of him snort.

"I'll admit, this is pretty rad. But why let me draw?"

"You ask too many questions, Y/N. But to answer, as you said earlier, it's your job to help me blend in with the rest of those smelly humans, and the home is one of the most important ways to do so!"

Y/N's mind suddenly connected the dots, and their eyes widened.

"Ohhhh! You want me to make an accurate human home for you to live in since I'm human and know what that would look like. That makes sense," they hummed, tapping their bottom lip with the stylus.

"Ah! So you're NOT an imbecile! I knew you co-"

"There's just one issue," Y/N interrupted, cutting Zim off, "This is a waterpark. It would be suspicious if a house just showed up in a waterpark, so I'm going to have to improvise. Are you okay with your base looking like a maintenance building? Or a gift shop?"

Zim stared at the esper in front of him like they had grown 3 heads, before turning around and stroking his chin in thought.

He definitely did not expect this, but a part of him knew that there was no way it was going to be so easy. He wanted a home that would look like, well, a home. But his old home was dangerous now, to him at least.

... Maybe it would be for the best.

"... Make it look like a maintenance building. We'll change the lab to have all of the 'homey' aspects to it," he ordered, uncharacteristically quiet.

Y/N quirked an eyebrow, but nodded and began to draw a fairly detailed sketch of a maintenance building. When the holographic pad asked for the interior (Y/N had to ask Zim to translate the unknown language the pad was in), the Y/G made sure to add a secret elevator into the lab, activated by speaking a secret password.

"Hey Zim, I've added a password activated elevator. What should the password be?" Y/N asked, and Zim hummed in thought for a few moments before his eyes lit up.

"Ooh! I know! Hand me the pad!" he demanded, and snatched the holographic pad from Y/N's hands before typing away. Once he was finished, he grabbed the stylus from Y/N's hands as well and placed it back into the pad.

The pad transformed into the familiar drill that had created Zim's original base, and the Irken looked at the esper who was staring at the device curiously. However, Zim simply put the device in his pocket for later

"C'mon, we should head back now. As you said, it is still daytime and we need to gather my things from the other base," Zim said, and Y/N blinked.

"Oh, yeah. Also, how are we going to remember where this place is? Do you have a beacon or something to mark this spot?" the human asked, and it was Zim's turn to blink.

"The old waterpark, huh..." Gaz mumbled to herself as she sat in the old lawn chair Y/N had in their front yard. Gaz reread the text message from her friend, confirming

Before Y/N arrived, Gaz had made sure that Sumi was settled; she refilled his food and water dishes, swept up as much broken glass off the floor as she could find so he wouldn't cut up his paws, and checked the big dog for any injuries (There were none).

Now, she was waiting for her friend in the dark of night to come back so they could fully assess the damage together.

Gaz looked down at Sumi, who was lying across her feet. He was very warm, and his long, black fur tickled her shins through her leggings. She smiled and ran her fingers through Sumi's well-groomed coat, enjoying its softness. Y/N really did take care of the cute dog, probably more than they took care of themself.

In the distance, the familiar rumbling of a motorcycle engine could be heard, and Gaz and Sumi perked up as the noise grew louder. Sumi stood up, the unusually large dog towering over Gaz's sitting form. His tail began to wag rapidly, and he seemed to dance on his large front paws, shifting and hopping on one paw at a time. Gaz grinned.

"Ooooh, Sumi, Y/N is coming!" she lovingly teased, standing up from her seat scratching under Sumi's chin. His long tongue lolled out of his mouth and he whined, wiggling in place. He sure was excited.

Then, the area was illuminated by the headlights of Y/N's motorcycle. Gaz waved, keeping one hand on Sumi's back as the 2-wheeled vehicle pulled into the driveway.

Y/N shut off the motorcycle before pulling off their helmet and dismounting. They pulled out the blue tarp from its spot and covered the motorcycle and walked up to Gaz.

The girl expected the Y/G to be frightened, or at the very least look worried. That was not the case. Y/N had pulled Gaz into a casual, friendly hug, before showering Sumi with affection.

As Y/N scratched behind Sumi's ears, they turned once more to their goth friend.

"So Gaz, how bad was the damage again?" they asked, and the girl looked to the trailer and then back to Y/N.

"Honestly, it's awful in there. I did manage to clean up most of the broken glass though, so we won't have to worry about that," Gaz replied. Y/N removed their hands from Sumi's fur and walked up the front steps, before swinging open the door and peering inside.

"Oh damn, this place IS fucked up..." they muttered to themself, stepping inside their trashed home, "This shouldn't take too long to fix, though..."

Gaz stepped in behind Y/N, making room for Sumi to enter as well, who immediately took his usual place in his dog bed next to the radiator. Gaz quirked a purple brow and gestured to the mess that was the whole trailer.

"How on Earth is fixing THIS going to be quick? We'll have to find everything that's broken and throw it out, replace the broken things, fix anything that's damaged..." she listed, "It'll take about a month at least to fix everything!"

"I don't think it will," Y/N commented, picking up an undamaged drinking glass. Gaz huffed in annoyance, before looking around once again. Yeesh, the place really was a dump. It was completely unlivable in her standards.

"... Hey Y/N?" the goth called out, and the Y/G paused their activity of putting undamaged clean dishes away.

"Yeah? What's up?"

Gaz examined Y/N's bedsheets and found them completely shredded. She balled up the large cloth and dumped it onto the desk chair. "I think you should stay with us while this place gets repaired," she suggested, and Y/N had to quickly catch the plate they almost dropped from their shock.

"Um, no."

"Why not? You do know that you're allowed to live with us, right? Like, rent-free?"

Y/N scoffed. "Gazlene, I love you to pieces, but I can't do that."

"Ugh, why not? This place is a complete mess! It's a hazard to you and Sumi right now!" she argued, gritting her teeth and glaring at her friend with one opened eye.

"Gaz, it's your home! I'm not going to intrude on it and take up more space than need be!"

"Y/N you fucking idiot, my home IS your home!" Gaz snapped, ripping a plate from Y/N's grasp and shoving it into the correct cupboard, "We love and care for you! Dad asks how you're doing nonstop, and has offered you to live with us before! Do you know how many pictures of you Dib has on his phone? It sounds creepy, but he has a ton of them! He talks about you all the time! Fuck, even Foodio asks about you sometimes! He's not even supposed to be able to do that!"

Gaz tightly gripped Y/N's shoulders and shook them. "We care about you, you stupid bitch! We want what's best for you! Why can't you see that?!" the goth roared, and Y/N went silent, staring into Gaz's now wide-open eyes. The room went silent, the only sound being the cars rolling across a distant highway.

"... I'm sorry, Gaz..." Y/N whispered, catching the girl off guard.

"... Y/N? You okay?" she asked, releasing her friend from her grip.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... I really can't live with you, no matter how much I want to. I know that all of you care about me, but I just can't... I'm not... safe? Yeah, safe to live with..." Y/N hesitated, refusing to meet their friend's burning gaze.

Suddenly, a realization dawned on Gaz, and it must've shown on her face because the E/C eyed Y/G gave the girl a confused look. "What?" they asked.

Gaz felt like an idiot. Of course Y/N wouldn't want to live with them! It was a house full of scientists and Y/N was an esper! Who knows what could happen?

God, Y/N was an esper. When she read the files she stole off of Dib's computer, to say she was in shock was an understatement. She was fairly hurt by the fact that Y/N didn't say anything about it for 9 years, but Gaz could understand, especially after listening to them ramble to Zim about their uncle and making that deal with him. It must really take a toll on your mental health knowing that if you reveal your true self that you'll be hunted down and possibly kidnapped away from your family and murdered.

Gaz couldn't stop the words from pouring out of her mouth.

"Y/N, I know you're an esper. If you're afraid we're going to hurt you for that, you're insane," she said and watched as all the color drained from her friends face, and become panic-stricken.

"H-How did you-"

Gaz cut Y/N off. "I found some files lying around with your name on it. I read through them, and that's how I figured it out."

"... Where did you find the files...?" Y/N asked, their soft voice shaking.

"Dib's computer."

Immediately, the Y/G looked like they were going to pass out, opting Gaz to panic slightly.

"Hey! Calm down! I don't think he knows," she lied, "and if he did know, I highly doubt he'd do what you think he'd do."

Y/N was silent for a few moments before they weakly spoke again. "Are you sure?"

Gaz nodded. "Of course. And from what else I learned off those files, being an esper is dangerous, right?"

"Uh-huh..."

"Okay, listen. If something like this happens again, promise me that you'll call me, or Dib, or Dad. Shit, even if nothing is happening but you feel like you're being watched, call us!"

"Wait, why?"

Gaz rolled her eyes. "Because we want you to be safe, duh!" she sighed, and Y/N stared at the ground.

"... Alright," Y/N quietly agreed, and a small smile spread across Gaz's face.

"Good. Now..." the goth gestured to the mess that was the trailer they were in, "We need to get cleaning. I'm supposed to be playing VHP with some other friends in an hour."

Y/N gave Gaz a smile of their own. "Right."

And with that, the two friends set to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a late update! School is hard, depression likes to kick my ass, and writer's block doesn't know when to quit. Enjoy!  
(Edit: the previous version of this chapter looked like I had a fuckin stroke or something, so I fixed that.)


	9. In The Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dib and Professor Membrane meet Y/N for the first time

_9 years ago…_

It was an exciting day for Y/N. The 8-year-old practically bounced as they walked to their school, ticket in hand. What was the ticket for? Well, the school science fair of course!

The young Y/G had always been interested in different sciences. From geology to chemistry to astronomy, Y/N found interest and fun within the subjects, and that’s why they had stolen $5 from their dad’s wallet to buy the ticket they currently held tightly in their hand. It’s not like he’d notice the money being gone- or Y/N being missing for that matter. Their parents never noticed them.

When the child walked into the elementary school, the first thing they noticed was the brightly colored ticket booth, decorated with bubbling paper beakers and streamers. Y/N grinned and tore through the hallway to get in the fairly long line that was lined up next to their booth of interest. Once it was their turn to give their ticket, Y/N practically slammed it onto the table and rushed inside.

The science fair had been held in the school gymnasium, which was set up with rows upon rows of tables for different projects to be displayed. Paper streamers and balloons decorated the walls, as well as a large banner that said ‘ELEMENTARY SKOOL SCIENCE FAIR’.

Y/N’s E/C eyes widened in amazement as they processed the scene. Then, they smiled and began to walk around, checking out their schoolmate’s projects. Potato battery? Pretty cool. Baking soda volcano? Not very original, but it was still interesting. Model of the human body? Amazing!

However, the project that had really caught Y/N’s eye was a fairly large contraption with a dome that had several spheres levitating within it. Upon closer inspection, the spheres were slowly moving!

Y/N gasped in amazement, E/C eyes sparkling as they bobbed and weaved through small crowds of people to get closer to the amazing build. Soon, they found a clear spot in the walkways to gawk and get an even closer look. They stood up on their tippy-toes and stared into the glass, watching completely mesmerized as the spheres moved through the dome.

The contraption was a model of our solar system, with a bright LED light in the center of the dome acting as the sun. Carefully painted styrofoam spheres of different sizes acted out as the planets, which rotated and revolved on their correct axis and ellipses around the sun. Y/N watched with delight as the Earth model completed another year, the sphere passing the line on the outside of the dome drawn in red sharpie.

Suddenly, the room grew completely silent, minus a voice. ‘Hey, that Y/G has been staring into my project for a while…’ Y/N heard a voice, ‘Maybe I should talk to them and explain it…?’

Y/N blinked, and the regular noises of people walking and talking came back. However, through the dull headache, they had now, the Y/G could feel something begin to approach. It seemed excited, yet nervous. It was probably the owner of the thoughts their telepathy had picked up.

* * *

As Dib approached the Y/G who was still staring at his solar system model, he couldn’t help but fiddle his fingers. The Y/G he was looking at had been observing his model for about 5 minutes straight now and showed no signs of leaving anytime soon. That’s way longer than anyone else had so far. Dib’s mind began to race even more, wondering what the mysterious stranger was thinking. Did they like his model, or did they hate it? Maybe they found something wrong with it? What if once he walked up, they yelled at him and called him stupid?

The black-haired boy quickly shook his thoughts away and focused on the H/C haired Y/G once more, and felt his face heat up when he realized they were staring directly at him from across the room, E/C eyes not once leaving him as he shuffled his way over. The closer he got to his fellow schoolmate, the more he began to sweat. Their eye-contact burned into him like a laser, making him gulp as he was finally in front of them now.

He shakily held out his hand, which was clammy with his nervous sweat. He forced a nervous grin onto his face, feeling his cheeks grow red at the fact that the Y/G was still staring holes into him with unnaturally glittery E/C irises.

“H-h-hi! I’m D-Dib Membrane,” he introduced, mentally cursing himself for his stuttering, “I noticed that you- you’ve been, uh, well, staring at my project for a while… W-would you like me to e-explain it, or-”

Immediately, the intense look from the Y/G stopped and replacing the hard expression on their face was a kind grin full of curiosity. They still stared at Dib, but the burning feeling was gone. They quickly took his hand in both of their own smaller ones, completely ignoring the clammy feeling of Dib’s hand.

“Hi, Dib! I’m Y/N L/N!” they introduced, giggling, “I really like your project! It’s so cool! It’s a model of the solar system, right?”

Dib’s smile became a bit more genuine at the unexpected praise. “Uh, yeah! It is! I’m really glad you like it! I saw you staring at it and thought you hated it, considering you stared at it for like 5 minutes straight…”

“Wh- was I really staring at it for that long?” Y/N asked, their face turning a bit red in embarrassment, and the boy giggled, showing off a few of his missing teeth.

“Yeah, but it’s okay! I’m just happy that you like it and think it’s cool!”

The two observed the project once more, watching the planets revolve around the sun in a few silent moments. Then, the Y/G leaned towards Dib to talk to him again.

“How’d ya’ make it?” they asked, standing on their tippy-toes again to see the display better. Dib blinked before smiling.

“Oh! Well basically, I put magnets inside of each of the planet models. The bottom of the dome is also a magnet, but it repels different planets in different areas and keeps them floating. The same thing with the sun.” the boy explained, gesturing to the different parts of his project he was talking about. Y/N’s eyes sparkled in admiration as they looked at Dib once more.

“Yo! That’s so COOL! I don’t think I could ever even dream of making something as fancy as this! I’m too stupid. But you’ve gotta be Einstein smart!” they praised, grinning from ear to ear. Dib blushed again but pointed to the 1st place ribbon he wore on his shirt, which had originally been hidden by his jacket.

“Well, I don’t mean to brag, but the model did win 1st place today…” he sheepishly replied, and Y/N threw their head back in a cackle before grabbing Dib’s hands.

“Congratulations! I’m happy for you!”

“Thanks!”

* * *

Professor Membrane watched as his son and his new friend interacted with a smile. He was happy for Dib. From what he could tell, he didn’t have many friends- or any for that matter. If this new child befriended him, his son would be much happier.

Professor Membrane stood up from his place at the snack table and walked over to his son before placing a gloved hand on his shoulder.

“Son! Excellent work on winning first place, my boy! Who’s your new friend?”

Dib jolted, and turned to his father, before smiling sheepishly at him and pointed to Y/N.

“Dad, this is Y/N L/N! Y/N, this is my dad, Professor Membrane!” he introduced. Professor Membrane held out a hand to shake, and the Y/G eagerly took it, their smaller hand practically swallowed up by Professor Membrane’s own larger adult one.

“So Y/N, where are your parents? I’d love to meet them,” he inquired, and couldn’t help but notice the Y/G’s smile droop a tiny bit.

“Oh, they’re at home.”

Professor Membrane furrowed his brows. “Then you must have an older sibling who took you here today, correct?” he asked, and his eyes narrowed behind his goggles when Y/N shook their head.

“Nope! I walked here by myself, cuz’ I’m a big kid now! My momma said so!”

They definitely weren’t a big kid. The Y/G could only be 8 or 9 years old at the most. Professor Membrane felt a pang of sympathy in his chest for Y/N. He hoped they would turn out okay if his assumptions about their home life was correct

The scientist looked around as his son and his friend began to talk again, and noticed that it was nearly pitch black outside. He imagined Y/N walking down the dark streets alone, before being grabbed by some freak in a white van and going missing. Professor Membrane cringed at the thought before looking down at Y/N once again.

“Y/N,” he spoke, catching the attention of both his son and the Y/G, “How about we take you home after the science fair ends? As an adult and a father, I don’t want you to have to walk home by yourself in the dark.”

Dib perked up and tugged at his dad’s lab coat. “Ooh! Ooh! Can we pleeeease stop for ice cream?! I did win first place after all!” he begged, and Professor Membrane chuckled and patted his young son’s head.

“Of course we can. So what do you say, Y/N?”

The young Y/G grinned and bounced on their feet. “Yes please!”


	10. OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR, DIB!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dib's been isolating himself lately, and Y/N gets sick of it.

Do you know that feeling when you realize you're an awful person?

When the realization first hits you, you find it hard to believe. I mean, c'mon! You're you! You had your reasons to do what you did, so it's justified! But the longer you think about it, the more you realize that no, your actions weren't justified, you're just an awful prick. And when those exact thoughts settle in your mind, you feel your heart race painfully with some kind of twisted heartache. You can feel your legs weaken beneath you, threatening to give out at any moment. Tears prick at your eyes, yet you can't let them fall. You don't deserve the privilege of crying. You feel like you can't breathe. You feel like you don't deserve to. If there's a mirror around to let yourself see your reflection or even a photograph with you in it, you feel the overwhelming urge to shatter it, because you don't want to see your own disgusting, pitiful face. Your hands twitch, begging for something to maul, that something being yourself because that kind of punishment is exactly what a freak like yourself deserves.

It's because you're awful.

Dib sobbed into his pillow for what felt like the 100th time that day. His glasses lay long discarded on his messy desk, and his hair was a mess from not getting out of bed yet, despite the fact that it was 4 PM on a Wednesday.

He didn't go to school that day, not to mention all the other days of the week. And why would he? His best friend was afraid of him, so much so that they made a deal with his worst enemy to keep them safe from himself. How on Earth could he possibly face them now? Hell, Y/N was probably living it up at school without him around; They were the popular one with all of the love in the world, and he was just...

A freak. Stupid baggage he forced his friend to carry around with them. God, Y/N probably never liked him from the start. They were probably only nice to him out of fear he'd dissect them for their psychic abilities.

... Their psychic abilities.

Dib reluctantly let go of the pillow he had been clutching onto like a lifeline for the past few hours and rolled onto his back, his eyes barely being able to make out the glow-in-the-dark sticky stars on his ceiling without his glasses.

Honestly, he still couldn't believe it. Y/N had been an esper all along.

Mentally, Dib scoured his memories of all the times he'd talked about espers in front of Y/N, and cringed when nearly every memory included him expressing his desire to catch one as if they were an animal, not a human being with thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, and conducting experiments.

No wonder Y/N was scared. He could completely understand why they made that deal with Zim. He was an alien, a stranger to Earth. If he was an invader, he had probably seen all sorts of alien species with psychic abilities, so someone like Y/N was completely normal to him. There was no reason for him to try and hurt them because of their powers. To him, Y/N was normal.

Dib threw an arm over his eyes and groaned. He hated this. He hated what he's done to Y/N, even if he didn't mean to.

He hated _himself_.

"Dib wasn't at school again today..." Y/N lamented, slouching sadly, "He hasn't been here since last week!"

Gaz sighed and patted her friend gently on the shoulder in reassurance. "I know, but he should come around soon. He can't avoid school forever. There are only so many days he can miss before he automatically fails," she responded, mentally tallying up the number of cracks in the sidewalk as she and her friend walked home, "I'll talk to him tonight. He can't keep this shit up."

"Please text me what he says. And tell him I'm lonely without him, will ya'?" Y/N requested, shoving their hands into their coat pockets.

After Gaz disappeared into her house, the Y/G sighed and looked up at the sky, lazily watching the snowflakes drift down from the dark grey clouds. They were currently on their way to Zim's new base, which was now safely hidden away in the old waterpark. They had agreed to head over to Zim's after school in order to help him design a better disguise. Y/N was going to come up with what the new disguise would look like, and Zim would build it.

This deal that the two made was really working out.

Y/N huffed out a small cloud of vapor from their lungs when they reached the main gate to Zim's base. The Irken had altered the gate to recognize when he or Y/N arrived, but since the seasonal temperature dropped, the gate took a few more seconds than normal to function.

Once the gate swung open after finally recognizing the Y/G's presence, they breathed out an annoyed 'finally' and quickly entered the fenced-in area, rubbing their arms for warmth. Curse you, freezing weather!

The familiar crunching of freshly fallen snow was all that Y/N could hear as they made their way to their ally's home. By now, the Y/G had walked the path to the fake maintenance building so many times that they didn't even have to think about where they were going. Just take a left near the bathrooms, turn right after the old, mangled slip n slide, turn right again at the vending machine, and you're there.

As they approached Zim's home, they found themself lost in thought, with their eyebrows furrowed in worry. Just like the rest of that week, all they could think about was Dib. They hadn't seen him in what felt like weeks. If he wasn't absent from school, he was completely avoiding everyone altogether, even going as far as to leave Y/N's lunch at their usual table and eat... somewhere else. Maybe the supply closet? The roof? Y/N had no idea. But what they did know was that they were worried about their best friend. Did they do something to upset him?

Y/N had tried nearly everything they could to get Dib talking to them again. They sent him little notes, which they had torn from their notebook and passed onto his desk. They sent him damn near constant text messages, telling him about their day, how shitty the homework was, and the cute things that Sumi did, only to get left on read. They called him at least once a day, only for their calls to get sent directly to voicemail. Shit, they even sent him a bouquet of chrysanthemums (which cost them just about their entire paycheck) and homemade chocolate cake, which they knew by heart that those were his favorite.

But nothing worked.

Y/N didn't even realize they had walked into Zim's lab until the Irken acknowledged them.

"Ah, Y/N! There you are! I was beginning to wonder whether you were going to show up or no- Hey, are you okay? You look..."

"Sad? Lonely? Worried for Dib's mental health and well-being? Yes," the Y/G grumbled, dropping their backpack and coat next to the elevator. The objects were picked up by the computer's metallic arms and were taken up into the ceiling for proper storage. Y/N practically flung themself into their usual chair that sat next to Zim's at his computer, and the alien sighed, rolling his magenta eyes and lowering himself from his extended PAK legs.

"I don't get why you're so worried about that stupid human. Doesn't he want to cut you open like he wants to with the ALMIGHTY ZIM? Besides, the Dib's absence is PERFECT for the continuation of my plans to take over this STUPID, FILTHY PLANET!! With HIM out of the way, ZIM can do as he pleases without interference by that idiotic Earth monkey!"

"Zim, you don't get it," Y/N sighed sadly, sprawling out on their chair and holding their cheek with one hand, "I'm not afraid of Dib himself. I'm afraid of his reaction to my powers, kind of like when someone is in the closet about being gay or something. He could either reject me or accept me. And even then, he's still my best friend. I care about him deeply."

Zim tilted his head in confusion. "That's still a fear of him, human- I mean Y/N. Besides, why would you become _friends_ with someone you're afraid of in the first place? Also, what's a _gay_?"

The esper let their head hang lazily over the chair's armrest and gazed up at the soft lights in the ceiling that illuminated the lab. "How was I supposed to know I was gonna be afraid? I was 8 years old, Zim. We both were. By the time I realized he might not like me for my powers, we were close enough to a point where I couldn't imagine my life without him in it. I still can't. And to have him so... _missing_ from my life all of a sudden when he's usually so close is unnerving. I'm worried about him. I _miss_ him."

The lab went awkwardly silent. While Y/N continued mentally fretting over their friend, Zim was staring at the human sitting next to him, an incredulous expression on his green face. He glanced at the tablet on his desk, showing a list of disguise ideas he wanted to try out. However, deep in his mind, he knew that he wouldn't be able to try out any of them with Y/N in the state they were currently in. He argued between himself in his mind, before coming to a decision and sighing. He couldn't get a better disguise without Y/N's help. And Y/N couldn't help Zim if they were constantly fretting over Dib. So, while he completely despised the idea, Zim made up his mind.

"Y/N," Zim carefully spoke, catching the psychic's attention, "While I absolutely HATE to say this... The mighty Zim has decided to help you help the Dib."

Y/N stared at Zim, E/C eyes wide, then, slowly, a wide grin broke out across their face.

"ZIM, YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARD! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" they cried out in joy, yanking the alien into a tight hug. The alien squirmed in their grasp, still not used to that kind of touch.

"Yes, yes, the Almighty Zim is wonderful. Now UNHAND ME AT ONCE!"

It was now around 9:30 pm, and Y/N found themself in front of the Membrane household. They parked their motorcycle and texted Zim.

**yo zim im at dibs house**

**do you have everything set up**

**YES.**

**THE TELESCOPE AND THE HUMAN NUTRIENTS ARE IN THAT CLEARING JUST AS YOU REQUESTED.**

**IM ALSO KEEPING AN EYE ON SUMI. HE'S IN HIS CORRECT POSITION AS WELL.**

**NOW HURRY UP AND RETRIEVE THE DIBSTINK.**

**YOUR EARTHEN WINTER IS FREEZING AND YOUR HUMAN COAT IS STARTING TO LOSE ITS WARMTH.**

**ill let you know when were on our way**

**by the way is the coat zippid up**

***zipped**

**NO.**

**IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE?**

**uh yes???**

**why else would the zipper be there**

**hello???**

**okay then green bean dont answer me**

**little bitchboy**

After putting their phone back in the pocket of their coat, Y/N approached the side of the house that had Dib's window. The lights were off, so he was probably asleep, but the esper didn't give a single shit at that moment.

Y/N carefully observed the area around them, making sure that nobody was watching. They even listened for unusual thoughts near them with their telepathy and sighed with relief when there was nothing.

"Well, here goes..." they whispered to themself before unleashing their telekinesis.

Y/N's hands began to glow, and then the rest of their body did as well. Their hair began to defy gravity as the esper made themself weightless, before literally levitating off the ground. They focused their sight on Dib's bedroom window, reaching out to his windowsill with one illuminated hand while the other one directed their telekinetic energy. Soon, they were floating over 10 feet off the ground, and able to carefully perch onto their friend's window.

As usual, Dib's blinds were closed which was a blessing in disguise, considering Y/N's body was literally glowing at that moment. The esper quickly cut off their powers with a trained exhale, feeling their body's weight returning. They nearly lost their balance and almost fell out of Dib's window but they managed to catch themself and gripped the boy's window latch.

_SNAP!_

Y/N grinned to themself and carefully slid open their best friend's window before lifting the blinds and poking their head inside.

In the bed beneath the window was Dib, who was currently sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He had probably heard his window lock snap in his sleep, which roused him awake, or at least semi-awake.

The boy yawned, showing off the small gap he had between his two front teeth that Y/N thought suited him so well. He cracked open his sleepy brown eyes and looked around the room, not noticing the figure in his window at first.

But when he did see Y/N coming in through his window, he let out a startled gasp before choking on his own spit and coughing, knocking him off his bed, still covered in his blankets. His hands fumbled wildly for his glasses and quickly put them on, desperately trying to identify the figure in his room.

"WHA- WHO ARE-" the 17-year-old boy stammered before his face and voice softened in recognition, "Wait, Y/N...?"

The Y/G smiled. "That's my name."

"Y-Y/N, what are you doing in my room?"

Y/N carefully climbed fully inside of Dib's bedroom, before shutting the window and sitting casually on top of his bed. "Sorry, but I really had to wake you. See, I've decided that we're going out tonight, Dib. Take a shower, brush your teeth, and put on some clothes. It's cold outside."

"Wait... wha-"

"Did I fucking stutter?" Dib gasped as Y/N suddenly jumped up from their spot on his bed and lifted him with surprising strength from the floor by the collar of his black nightshirt. He stumbled as he was dragged out of the room and to his bathroom, the bright lights nearly blinding him when Y/N suddenly turned them on.

"But Y/N, it's so late at night! Can't this wait until tomorrow?" he whined, staring at the towel Y/N held in their hands.

"Dude, it's only like, 9:30. You've stayed up waaaay later than that and you know it," they informed, carefully feeling his long cowlick and grimacing when they realized it was dirty with grease. In the light, they could tell he had been crying as well, seeing as his eyes and nose were red and puffy, and the stains of tears trailed down his face. Not to mention he had dark bags beneath his eyes. However, Y/N knew it wasn't from lack of sleep.

"Eugh, dude you look like shit. Even more reason to shower. Now get in there, and make it snappy! I already have plans for us." they announced before shoving the towel into the boy's arms and leaving the bathroom, shutting the door.

Dib stared in shock at the space that his best friend had previously stood, his mind still processing what just happened. He blinked, before looking down at the towel in his arms. It was his favorite one, made from a fluffy blue fabric with ghost patterns on it.

A sudden knock at the bathroom door startled him out of his thoughts.

"Why am I not hearing the shower? Get in there, Dibby! I'm an impatient person, you know!" Y/N called out, and Dib quickly set the towel on the rack and stripped quickly, before turning on the water.

He shivered at the water's temperature, despite setting it to a cool one on purpose to help wake him up. He began to wash his face and allowed his mind to wander.

_'See, I've decided that we're going out tonight, Dib.'_ Y/N's voice rang in his head, and he felt his face warm up. He should've been used to his best friend's choice of words by now, but he still couldn't help but think of his friend's words in _that_ way.

Y/N wasn't the romantic type. Hell, he's never seen them show romantic interest in anyone before, not even when Torque Smackey hit on them during Homecoming earlier that school year, or when Jessica tried to flirt with them during gym class Sophomore year.

Why would they be any different from himself?

The boy sighed and began to wash his hair. He grumbled in annoyance as his cowlick fell into his face, before pushing it back with shampoo.

But honestly, he knew damn well why Y/N had come to him that night. He had been actively avoiding them and didn't even give them a hint as to why. They probably sought him out for some kind of closure; what kind, he didn't know. But he knew that they had been trying to reach him.

He read every text Y/N sent him, but he couldn't bring himself to reply. He watched his cell phone ring with their phone calls and denied them. However, he did put the flowers into a vase in the kitchen and had a small slice of the chocolate cake they sent, which literally had a message in sweet chocolate buttercream frosting that said 'I CARE ABOUT YOU MOTHERFUCKER' piped in big messy letters on top. He had to admit, that one made him laugh before making him feel worse. He really missed Y/N.

He did feel bad about avoiding them, but he felt like it was the only thing he could do. If they were afraid of him, he wanted to be as far away from them as possible so they could be comfortable. He figured that's what they wanted.

Yet, they kept trying to get close to him.

... Maybe he had overthought about the entire situation a bit too much.

After rinsing out the suds from his skin and hair, he shut off the water and stepped out of the shower and onto the soft bath mat. He grabbed the towel from off the rack and dried himself as quickly as he could before wrapping the towel around his pelvis and brushing his teeth. Once that was done, he turned on the bathroom fan to air out any water vapor that appeared and stared at his reflection.

Yeesh, Y/N was right. He really did look like shit.

He probably looked even worse before showering, but he still looked bad. Dark circles lingered beneath his brown eyes, and he had more acne that dotted his face. He hadn't shaved in a while, so his sideburns were a bit more prominent, as was the peach fuzz on his jaw. Not to mention his small goatee was longer and messier from lack of grooming. His body looked skinnier, yet fatter at the same time. Probably from lack of movement and eating.

Jesus, he had really let himself go.

A couple more knocks on the door startled him, and he quickly fixed his hair before opening the bathroom door, revealing Y/N laying face down on his bed. They peered up at him for a second, skimming over his now clean body, before giving him a thumbs up in approval and putting their face back down in the sheets. Dib's face burned up, from both facts that he was half-naked in front of his best friend, and insecure about his body.

But it was mostly the fact that he was half-naked in front of his best friend.

He quickly grabbed some warm clothes, heeding his friend's earlier warning about the outside temperature.

"Don't look, I'm about to change," he warned.

"Well now you're tempting me," Y/N snorted in return, and Dib's face got warmer, already being able to imagine the shit-eating grin on his friend's face. He knew they wouldn't look, though, so he swiftly changed.

Once he was ready, he placed a hand on Y/N's shoulder. They sat up and scanned his appearance again, and nodded in approval. They relocked his window and lead him out of the house and handed him his motorcycle helmet, before putting on their own helmet and mounting their bike. They pulled out their cell phone and sent a quick text to someone, before putting their phone back in their pocket.

"Are you sure you want to drive us on your motorcycle during the winter at night? Seems a little dangerous to me," he teased, after turning on his helmet's communicator function. Y/N laughed as they turned on the vehicle and pulled out of the driveway, Dib riding behind them as usual.

"Just a little dangerous?" they joked. Dib smiled.

"Yeah, just a little."

The two friends were completely silent after that, that is, until Y/N pulled into a familiar parking lot. After Dib took off his helmet and stashed it away in the trunk of Y/N's bike, he finally realized why it was so familiar.

It was the park his dad used to take them to all the time to go stargazing.

He made a noise of confusion and followed Y/N as they began to walk the old trail, the wooden pathway being slippery with ice. Dib stepped up next to Y/N and glanced at them from the corner of his eye, and quickly looked away when they glanced back. Then, he looked up at the ancient trees that surrounded them, noticing their lack of leaves right away. He looked back down at Y/N again when he felt them gently grasp his arm and look up at him.

"Dib, do you know why I brought you out here?" they asked, voice softer than they had ever heard it. He stared into their E/C eyes, which had a kind of pleading look to them. He reluctantly tore his gaze away from his friend and blew out a puff of vapor.

"...Yeah, I think so."

The duo turned left, and Dib could catch glimpses of the old clearing up ahead. The area used to be lush and green, but since it was wintertime as well as old, all the grass was dead, and there was the occasional bottle, cigarette butt, or wrapper left on the ground from littering teens and junkies.

"Tell me why you think we're here right now," they said, looking down at the ground to kick a small chunk of ice, "Please."

Oh boy.

Dib took a deep breath and placed a gloved hand over Y/N's hand that was still holding onto his arm. The Y/G looked up at him.

'Well, here goes nothing.'

"You took me here because... I've been avoiding you. Avidly," Dib responded, looking everywhere but his friend in shame, "I stopped answering your texts and calls and ignored the notes you kept passing to me in class. I kept running away from you in school and ate lunch in the library instead of with you and Gaz..."

Y/N's grip tightened just a bit around his arm, their arm now wrapped around his in a link. Dib could feel his friend's warmth through their thick coat, and he couldn't help but huddle just a bit closer to battle the nightly winter chill.

"... Yeah, that's precisely it," Y/N answered, looking down at the ground again with a frown on their S/T face. The teenage boy felt a stab of pain in his heart, and he cringed, knowing it was pure guilt.

"... Why did you do it?" Y/N asked, carefully stepping over a large stick that had fallen into the pathway, and Dib felt his heart skip a beat. He wasn't exactly ready to tell just yet, that he avoided his best friend in order to give them space because he thought they were afraid of him. He didn't want them to know that he knew that they had psychic abilities; what would they do if they did know?

He supposed he could give them a half-truth. It wouldn't exactly be lying.

"W-well..." Dib hesitated, looking as far down the trail as he could. They were almost to the clearing now, and he could see... something over there. He looked down at the ground.

"I was... ashamed of myself. I still am," he answered honestly, and Y/N stared at him before removing their hand from his arm and bringing it to his back. Their other hand grasped his gloved one, and he squeezed it in acknowledgment.

"Ashamed of what, may I ask?"

"I..." Dib hesitated once more, and fought back the tears that were threatening to fall, "I just- I feel like I've been awful to you. In all honesty, I don't even know why you're still my friend; I'm the school's freak. You're literally the only friend I have. But you... Y/N, you have so many people that care about you and want to be your friend. Everyone loves you, and would probably be a much better friend than I ever could. Shit Y/N, I swear I'm holding you back just by... existing in your vicinity. Without me, you'd have even more friends than you do now. A-and I just-"

"Dib."

He looked at Y/N with sad eyes at their interruption and felt more tears burn behind his eyes at their expression. They looked at him with a mix of horror and sadness, and... something else. He couldn't place it. Dib only realized they had stopped walking when the skin of Y/N's hands carefully made contact with his chill-reddened cheeks, holding his face in place and forcing him to look at them. Their hands felt like ice against his skin.

"Let me tell you something, Dib," Y/N softly spoke, gently running their thumbs beneath his eyes, "If I didn't want to be your friend, you wouldn't even be seeing me right now. You wouldn't have my phone number. I wouldn't have yours on speed-dial. I wouldn't invite you to do everything with me like I do. If I didn't want to be your friend, I wouldn't sit with you and Gaz during lunch. I wouldn't interact with you at all."

Dib tried to look away. He really did. But the way his best friend of 9 years looked at him with nothing but pure adoration kept him captivated.

"But," Y/N's voice continued, nearly just a whisper now, "I do want to be your friend. I never want to let you go, you hear me? And what's more is that the only thing I want from you is for you to be happy, because that's what friends want. You're my friend, Dib, and I want you to be happy. I'm always here for you, no matter what. Yes, I have other friends, and they matter to me as well, but you, Dib, will always be my priority. Okay? Don't be ashamed of yourself around me, because I sure as hell will never be ashamed because of you."

Dib sniffed, unable to hold back the flow of tears any longer. He sobbed, and Y/N quickly pushed his glasses up onto his forehead and pulled him into a hug, Dib's face buried in their neck. He wrapped his best friend in a tight embrace in return, a gloved hand on the back of their waist and head.

He couldn't help but smile against Y/N's neck as they spoke one final sentence, the vibrations of their larynx against his cheek bringing him comfort.

"You make me happy, Dib."

The two lost track of how long they stood there, just hugging and relishing in each other's presence. It was only when they heard familiar panting that they broke apart, and looked up to see Sumi running towards them, long pink tongue lolling out of his mouth. Dib and Y/N gasped in delight and braced themselves for impact.

Sumi jumped as soon as he was close enough to his owner and their friend, bracing his big black paws on the humans' shoulders. Dib cackled as Sumi licked his face, tail wagging a mile a minute. He brought his hands up and scratched the Tibetan mastiff, Y/N doing the same thing beside him. They were also receiving Sumi's slimy, drooly love.

After Sumi settled down and was back on all fours, Dib turned to Y/N who was giving Sumi scratches on the top of his fuzzy head.

"So, why was Sumi here?" he asked, smiling at Sumi when the dog's chocolate eyes met his own. Y/N laughed and scratched the back of their neck in embarrassment.

"Well, he was a part of the surprise I prepared for you..."

"Ooh! A surpriiise?" he grinned teasingly, and Y/N flushed red.

"W-well, while you were avoiding me, you looked really... well, sad. And I thought that maybe I could surprise you with an activity we both love. Y'know, to cheer us both up, soooo..."

The Y/G jogged to the end of the path and gestured to the center of the clearing. When Dib caught up and looked out to what they were gesturing at, he gasped, then grinned widely.

"Dude."

"What?"

"Had I known we were going stargazing with Sumi and eating snacks, I would've showered faster," Dib jested, gesturing to the high-tech telescope in the center of the clearing that the esper had borrowed from Zim.

Y/N cackled and followed Dib to the small area they and Zim had set up. Once there, they sat down next to the telescope as Dib sifted through the basket of snacks for him to choose from. Y/N grabbed a large stick next to the telescope and waved it around, catching Sumi's attention. He danced around on his paws, antsy to catch the stick. Then, Y/N chucked the stick with all their might, and Sumi took off in a flash.

They took a seat next to Dib on the ground, who opened a bag of potato chips and passed one to them. Y/N smiled and popped it in their mouth, savoring the salty flavor.

A comfortable silence fell over the two friends as Dib sat upon his knees and adjusted the telescope, taking off the lens covers and aiming the contraption at the clear night sky. He froze for a moment when he felt Y/N's arms wrap around his waist but continued what he was doing.

"Yeeeees?" he asked.

"Regarding our conversation earlier, I just wanted to say that I hope you know that isolating yourself like that is unhealthy. Please don't do that ever again," Y/N requested, and Dib turned around in their grasp before placing a hand on top of their head in reassurance.

"Don't worry. I won't. And I promise that if I'm feeling as shitty as I was during that time, I'll come directly to you."

Y/N smiled. "Thanks, Dibby."

And at that moment, something clicked within Dib's mind.

Y/N wasn't actually scared of him, they were scared of what he'd think of them if he knew that they had psychic powers. He could relate to that pain, having been in the closet as pansexual before. He remembered how scared he was as he faced his father in the hallway and spoke those three words, _'Dad, I'm pansexual._' Y/N was probably feeling the exact same thing when it came to their psychic abilities. They just weren't ready to 'come out' in their own way.

With that realization embedded in his mind, Dib made a vow to himself as he observed the stars with his best friend and their dog. He was going to make himself as approachable as he could for Y/N when it came to psychic powers. No more talk about dissecting their brains. No more violent plans on how to catch espers, or even plans to catch them at all.

He was going to be better, for Y/N's sake.


	11. House Parties: AKA the Real Fuckfests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/N, Gaz, Zim, and Dib go to a house party. Chaos ensues.

_RRIIIIIING!!!_

Y/N grinned as the loud sound of the bell rang through the room, signaling it was time for lunch. They quickly tied their coat around their waist and put their backpack on, anxious to leave the cramped classroom.

“Don’t forget! We don’t have school tomorrow due to parent-teacher conferences!” Mr. Elliot announced as the students left the classroom.

As Y/N walked through the hallway, they received multiple greetings from other students and teachers.

“Hi Y/N!”

“Hey Y/N!”

“Yo! Y/N!”

“Excellent work on that essay, Y/N.”

To return all of the greetings, the Y/G simply smiled and waved back, weaving through groups of teens to get to the cafeteria as soon as they could. They could feel their stomach growling and was desperate to know what Foodio had made them for lunch this time.

After pushing open the old double doors to the cafeteria, Y/N moved to their usual table where Gaz was sitting, playing on her GameSlave. After sitting down, Gaz only looked up at the Y/G for a brief second before looking back down to her game once again.

“Dib’ll be here soon. His teacher wanted him to finish a real quick test after class,” the purple-haired girl informed Y/N who groaned in response and held their grumbling belly, their S/T face down on the tabletop.

“Uuuuuuuuuughh….”

Just then, the H/C-haired esper felt something approaching their table from behind and sat up, turning their head to face whoever was walking up.

“Oh, hey Aki, hey Jessica, what brings you here?” Y/N asked, E/C eyes blinking curiously at the two girls. They never approached a table if either Gaz or Dib was there.

Jessica pushed some of her blonde hair behind her ear and grinned at Y/N, folding her hands behind her back.

“Weeeeell, I was recently given the keys to my family’s summer home, and I thought that since we don’t have school this Friday, I’d hold a party there! You should toooootally come!” she suggested, and Aki held out a torn piece of notebook paper to the Y/G.

Y/N took the scrap of paper cautiously and studied it. “What’s this?”

“Oh, just the basic info about the party,” Aki replied, “It starts tomorrow at 7:00 pm. The house address is right there on the paper. We’re gonna order pizza, play some hot music over some speakers, and play some games like Twister and spin the bottle. And, you can bring along whoever you want! The more the merrier, you know?”

“Oh! There’s also a heated pool, jacuzzi, and one of my cousins is gonna bring some of that gooooood shit if you know what I mean?” Jessica winked, leaning on the table to put her face near Y/N’s.

“Ah, so this is one of THOSE parties,” Y/N concluded, leaning back on the table.

“So? Are you coming? We gotta know soon so we can plan how much pizza and punch to buy,” Aki asked, and the Y/G hummed in fake thought.

“Sounds like it’s gonna be chaotic. I’m in. But on one condition.”

Aki and Jessica leaned in, tilting their heads curiously. “Condition?” they asked at the same time.

“Yup,” Y/N nodded, “My condition is that I’ll go as long as you serve ice cream. I’ve been craving that shit for ages.”

Aki blinked before grinning. “Of course! Will Neapolitan work? It has three flavors.”

“Yeah, that sounds fine.”

“HEY! YOU HUMANS!” a shrill voice suddenly rang in the air, and all of a sudden Zim was standing on the top of Y/N’s table and pointing at Jessica and Aki.

“Ugh… What do you want, freak?” Jessica groaned, stepping away from the table and holding Aki’s arm.

“What do I WANT? STUPID human, Zim is to be invited to this ‘party’ at ONCE!” the Irken demanded, still pointing at the two girls. Y/N grabbed Zim’s pointing hand and placed it at his side, much to his confusion. Jessica and Aki looked at one another, obvious disgust on their faces. Jessica opened her mouth to say no but froze when she saw Y/N’s judgemental look on their face, directed right at them.

Wanting to look cool and friendly in front of the Y/G, Jessica forced a smile on her face. “S-Sure! Of cooooourse you can come! Aki DID say it more the merrier, am I RIIIIIGHT, AKI?” the girl forcefully said, hinting to the dark-skinned girl beside her.

“Uh, what are we talking about over here? Hey Y/N, sorry for the wait. I got your lunch, by the way,” Dib interrupted, sliding into the bench across the table from his best friend and setting his lunchbox down on the table.

“I’m going to a party that Jessica is hosting at her place tomorrow,” Y/N casually answered, opening up the lunchbox and pulling out their food.

“Ooh, sounds like fun. Can I come?”

“Uhhhh…” Aki nervously stammered, not wanting to say yes. However, she sighed and nodded. If Zim was coming, might as well invite Dib too.

“Ugh, fine. You can come too. But ONLY because you got hot after elementary school. You’re still weird as fuck though,” Jessica grumbled before grabbing Aki and dragging her away to invite some other people.

“Hmph, I hate those two smelly humans…” Zim grumbled, finally stepping off of the table and sitting down properly.

Dib shuddered, face pink and uncomfortable. “For once, we agree on something.”

“Don’t worry about them Dib, they’re just overly judgemental. Always have been, always will be,” Y/N comforted the 17-year-old, patting his hand.

* * *

Y/N sighed as they pulled off their motorcycle helmet and stashed it away in their bike’s storage. It was currently 5:00 pm the next day, which was Friday. Aka, the day of Jessica’s party. Dib had checked the address that the blonde girl had given to his friend, and found that it was an hour’s drive. And since he hadn’t been to a general house party before, he wanted Y/N’s help on how to prepare.

The Y/G knocked on the door of the large house and grinned when Gaz opened the front door.

“Dib’s in his room. Fretting,” was all she said before plopping herself on the couch and going back to her game. As Y/N closed the door, they couldn’t help but notice Gaz’s attire. While it looked like her usual style, she seemed a bit more done up with gothic makeup, black heeled ankle boots, as well as a choker. Y/N raised an eyebrow.

“You look nice, Gazzy, are you coming with us to the party of something?” they asked, and their eyes widened when the girl nodded her head.

“Woah, seriously?! I thought you hated shit like this!”

“I do,” Gaz replied, “But SOMEONE’S gotta make sure that none of you get killed.”

Y/N snorted and began to walk upstairs. “That’s nice of you. Thanks, I guess.”

“Whatever.”

Once Y/N reached Dib’s bedroom, they flung the door open.

“Hey bastard, ‘tis I, your party coach!” they announced, posing dramatically.

“Oh, there you are!” Dib gasped, who was standing at the edge of his bed. He had a variety of outfits laid out, his own shirt missing. Y/N closed the door behind them and studied his outfits.

“Looks like you’ve been busy, eh?” they teased, poking Dib’s side. He flinched away and tried not to laugh at the ticklish sensation.

“Yeah, pretty much. I’ve never been to a house party before, and I certainly have never been _invited_ to one either. What am I even supposed to wear to something like this?” he rambled, beginning to pace, “I need your help. You’ve been to hundreds of these things, right? You know what to do and to wear!”

“Dude, you need to calm down. Stressing out is the exact opposite of what you should do,” Y/N said sternly, grabbing Dib’s bare shoulders to hold him in place, “I’ll find you a good outfit to wear, alright? In the meantime, if you haven’t showered yet, you should. If you don’t, you’ll probably feel filthy after the party.”

Dib sighed and nodded, before disappearing into his bathroom. Once he was out of sight, Y/N grinned and turned to the pile of clothes on the boy’s bed.

“Finally, I can get that dude to wear something other than that stupid trenchcoat!” they cheered to themself before setting to work.

* * *

Dib turned on his turn signal after pulling into another street and turned left. He, Y/N, and Gaz were piled into the boy’s car, who agreed to drive them to the party. The neighborhood he was currently driving in was one for those of the upper class; the houses were enormous with huge yards, giant windows, and high rooftops. After taking a right, the trio was met with another huge house. However, this one had nearly 10 cars within its driveway, and familiar people walking around the yard and inside. Even from inside the car, everyone could feel the beat of a speaker playing some music.

“This must be the place. Are y’all ready?” Y/N asked, taking off their seatbelt. They got out of the car and stepped onto the concrete of the huge driveway, and Dib and Gaz followed. Once everyone was ready, they walked up to the front door and stepped inside.

Dib winced at how loud the music was. It pounded through the entire house, shaking the windows to the tune of _Tik Tok_ by Kesha. He could feel the bass of whatever speakers were there rattling his bones. Suddenly though, the volume lowered considerably.

“SORRY ABOUT THAT! I TRIPPED AND TURNED UP THE VOLUME!” the group heard someone shout. Everyone in the room sighed in relief.

Taking another look at his surroundings, Dib realized just how many people were there. There were large swarms of people bopping in the hallways with drinks, and he could hear conversations up the large flight of stairs to his left. There were probably even more in the rooms he couldn’t see, such as the kitchen and living room.

Suddenly, Zita and Aki walked up.

“Oh my God, Y/N! You showed up! I’m so glad you’re here!” Aki cheered, grabbing the Y/G’s arm.

“We were just talking about boyfriends and stuff. Do you mind if we take them, Dib?” Zita asked, and before Dib could answer yelled “THANKS! BYEEEE!” and dragged his best friend off into the crowd.

The 17-year-old stared at the space Y/N had just stood in, shocked, before his mind processed what had happened.

“HEY! HOLD ON!” he hollered, marching through the crowd, trying to find where his friend had been dragged off to.

“This’ll be good,” Gaz muttered to herself as she rolled her eyes and went her own way into the sea of people.

As Dib searched the crowds for his friend, little did he know that a certain alien had arrived at the party.

“Ugh, this human music is garbage!! And WHY are there SO MANY PEOPLE?!” Zim cried out after opening the front door and looking around. Beside him, Gir gasped.

“OoooOOOOOOOOOoooo, I smell PIZZA! WHEEHEHEHEHEHEE!!” the robot cackled, before rushing off.

“Gir? GIR?!” Zim called out, before crossing his arms and grumbling, “That idiotic robot…!”

Zim sighed and held his face in an attempt to calm down. He couldn’t afford to get mad, he just got here! Attending this party would be a great means of study on humans. With every event, he was one step closer to taking over this stinky planet! And not to mention, he had a plan to get as much information as possible, and possibly take over the entire party with one plan! Zim shoved a gloved hand into his pocket and grinned to himself when his hand met with a familiar vial.

This plan HAD to work!

Looking back up from his mental pep talk, Zim realized just how many people there were in the large house.

He also realized just how short he was compared to humanity.

At the moment, he was standing next to a group of friends who were drinking and gossiping. The top of his head only reached the shortest person’s hips! Zim felt himself sweat. He could get easily trampled in such a crowded space like this!

For his safety, he needed to find Y/N. Or at the very least Gir. Or… Dib, as much as he hated to admit it.

Dib was tall. He was definitely one of the taller kids in school, growing up to be a shocking 6 foot 3. If Zim could find Dib and stick by him, he would be less likely to get stepped on by the hundreds of pairs of legs that surrounded him.

Zim took a deep breath before heading into the crowd.

Avoiding kicking feet as well as other people who were walking around, Zim managed to find himself in the kitchen.

‘Aha! Perfect! This HAS to be where the punch is! If I can just dump my serum in there…!’

Zim’s grin dropped when he noticed just how many people were at the punch bowl. People were filling their red solo cups left and right! There was no way he could dump in the serum undetected right now!

‘BLASTED!’

“Okay, new plan…”

Zim decided to investigate the rest of the large house to get his bearings. Stepping out the tall french doors in the kitchen, the alien was met with the back deck of the house.

It was really fancy with a patterned stone floor, a pool, plenty of tables to sit at, as well as a jacuzzi. The alien didn’t care about most of that. What Zim DID care about was the human looking out over the pool.

It was Dib, who was sitting in one of the many lawn chairs surrounding the pool. In his hand, he held a red solo cup, which probably held more punch. He seemed stressed as he looked out at the many people splashing about in the pool. Zim grinned and walked towards the human, making sure to avoid the edge of the pool so he wouldn’t get any water on him.

“Dib-stink!” he called out to the boy, who choked on a mouthful of punch.

Dib turned towards Zim, and his eyes widened before he pointed at the alien.

“ZIM! What the hell are you doing here?!” he cried out, and the Irken grinned menacingly. Zim noticed that Dib’s attire looked different.

He wore his usual blue t-shirt and boots, but instead of plain black pants, he wore black and white checkered ones with a thick studded belt. Replacing his black trench coat was a black leather jacket. Zim had to admit, he didn’t look… too awful. At least he wasn’t wearing that stupid trenchcoat.

“None of your business, DIB-STINK!” the Irken declared, “But since you’re my nemesis, I suppose I’ll tell you.” Zim then pulled out the small vial from his pocket, revealing its sparkling pink contents.

“What on Earth is THAT?” Dib questioned, jumping up from his chair, his drink forgotten.

“This, Dib, is my newest creation! Mind control serum!” Zim replied proudly, lifting the small vial as high as he could, “Even just a drop of this into a WORTHLESS, STUPID human’s drink will put them under MY INFLUENCE! By drinking something with the serum, their PUNY MINDS will be MINE! AHAHAHAHA!!!”

Dib’s eyes widened before he grit his teeth in rage. “NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!” the boy cried out before lunging forward and decking Zim right across the face.

The crowd immediately noticed the skirmish and surrounded the two, giving the two males a circular arena to duke it out in.

“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” they all chanted, with some individuals in the crowd recording the battle with their phones or whistling.

Y/N looked up from their phone, wondering what the hell was going on. After being dragged into a bedroom by Aki and Zita, they were bombarded with questions by the two females on relationships and how to fix them. Currently, the two girls were gone to get some more punch, but the Y/G questioned if they were even going to come back. The distant chanting was only getting louder.

“Ugh, I swear to God if Zim or Dib is the cause of this…” they grumbled in annoyance, slamming open the bedroom door and heading downstairs to the main floor, sliding down the smooth wooden banister. Y/N followed the noise outside and immediately noticed the huge crowd.

“Ah great,” they quietly spat, before shoving their way through the crowd to see what was going on.

“Outta my way!”

“Move it!”

“Coming through!”

After finally breaking through the wall of teens and young adults, the Y/G could finally find the source. They felt their face turn red with anger upon seeing Zim and Dib beating the shit out of each other.

“Of fucking course, those fucking…!” Y/N growled, cringing as Zim bit Dib’s arm while the boy kneed the alien in the stomach. The crowd oohed as the E/C-eyed teen stepped within the circle. 

_WHAM!_

Dib and Zim cried out in pain as Y/N grabbed the two by the back of their skulls and slammed their foreheads together as hard as they could. The two fell onto the ground and held their heads as the crowd went silent. The Y/G turned to the crowd with a glare like a thousand knives.

“Okay, fights over, now go back to what you were doing!!”

Almost immediately, the crowd dispersed and went back into the house, leaving the three alone.

Or should I say four.

“Well that was entertaining,” Gaz commented, walking up to the trio.

“Tch, don't encourage them, Gaz.”

“What? It’s true.”

“Ow…” Dib groaned, finally sitting up from the ground, though he still held his face in his hands. The only noise Zim made was some kind of broken wheeze.

Y/N looked at Gaz.

“Do me a favor and take care of Zim. I need to teach DIB a LESSON,” they spat, before walking over to the 17-year-old boy who was still on the floor. He slowly looked up at his approaching friend with hazy eyes, obviously dizzy.

“Wha-”

Dib then yelped in shock as Y/N gripped the back of his collar with an iron grip and dragged him back into the house.

“OW! HEY!” Dib complained as he was harshly shoved onto the bed. Y/N ignored him and slammed the door, locking it, and then turned to their friend.

“WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING?!” they roared through grit teeth, making Dib flinch before he stood up.

“What was I DOING? SAVING EVERYONE HERE, THAT’S WHAT!” he retaliated, pointing to himself.

“Dib, nobody here NEEDED SAVING!”

“THAT’S what YOU THINK, Y/N! I’m telling you, Zim was planning to MIND CONTROL EVERYONE HERE by DRUGGING THE PUNCH! DID YOU EXPECT ME TO JUST STAND BY AND WATCH HIM DO IT?!”

“YES!!! I DID!!!”

Dib went silent for a moment, eyes wide and mouth agape. Then, his gaze steeled, burning lasers into the Y/G in front of him.

“Do you not care, Y/N?” he inquired, taking a step towards the esper, who didn’t move a muscle.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Dib growled. “About HUMANITY, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!” he yelled, and Y/N flinched at his volume. Then, they glared right back at the boy.

“Of course I care about humanity! I’m a human myself!”

“Then WHY aren’t you trying to stop Zim?! We BOTH KNOW that he’s an ALIEN! We BOTH KNOW that he wants to CONQUER EARTH and ENSLAVE HUMANITY! WHY ARE YOU LETTING HIM DO WHAT HE WANTS?!”

Of course, Dib knew exactly why. The conversation he heard between Y/N and Zim that one night was still a fairly fresh memory within his brain. He just wanted to know if Y/N would spill it or not.

“You wanna know why?!” they huffed, fists shaking from anger, “It’s because he’s TOO STUPID!”

Dib blinked, not expecting the answer.

“What makes you say that?! He has a SPACESHIP! He conducts EXPERIMENTS and BUILDS MACHINES! HOW IS HE STUPID?!” he yelled and held himself back as Y/N rolled their eyes.

“Dib, just because someone is smart doesn’t mean they’re _smart._ Yes, he can build robots and knows how to make every chemical known to man. Yes, he knows how to pilot a spaceship and can make deadly traps. But all of that is worthless if he doesn’t know how to utilize it properly!” the Y/G explained, throwing up their hands in exasperation, “You remember that one day when Zim brought that fake teacher robot to school?”

Dib nodded, “The one where he tried to give me infinite detention?”

“Yeah, that one!” Y/N replied, moving past Dib and sitting down on the bed, “He could’ve used that robot for so much more! Like, he could’ve used it to spread misinformation and brainwash our classmates into praising him! But he didn’t! Instead, he used it to be petty, and it didn’t even work!”

Suddenly, it clicked in Dib’s mind and his mouth formed a small o.

“...Oh. I think I get what you’re saying...” he said, and sat down next to Y/N on the bed.

They nodded, “Yeah. So basically, what I’m trying to say here is that Zim can’t take over the Earth because he uses his intellect on useless matters. If he wanted to take over the world with that funky juice of his that you said he has, he would put it in the water supply if he were smart. But he isn’t. And instead-”

“He’s putting the serum in a punch bowl at a teenager’s house party,” Dib finished. Oh shit, now he felt bad for yelling because they made perfect sense. He pulled his knees up to his chest and stared at the wall, a small silence overcoming the two.

“... Y/N?” he whispered, and Y/N glanced over at the boy.

“Yeah?”

“Are you mad at me?”

The Y/G hesitated, staring out the window.

“...I was, but not anymore,” they truthfully replied, “I just… Can you do me a favor?”

Dib perked his head up. “What is it?”

“For the rest of the night, I want you to let Zim do what he wants. Take your mind off of him, will ya’? I swear that big brain of yours is gonna explode if you keep stressing over him,” Y/N requested. Dib stared, wide-eyed, before looking down at the plush carpet of the bedroom they were in.

“... I guess I can try…” he mumbled.

Y/N giggled, before putting an arm around his shoulders. “Thanks, dude. I appreciate it. Now…”

The Y/G suddenly jumped up before whipping off their shirt and pants, revealing their swimming gear underneath, “I’M GOIN’ SWIMMIN’!” they yelled, practically ripping open the window and stepping onto the rooftop outside.

“Wh- Y/N!!! YOU FUCKING CRACKHEAD! GET BACK IN HERE!!!” Dib cried out and watched in awe and panic as his friend ran across the roof’s shingles, before doing a backflip off of it and into the deep swimming pool below. Cheers erupted from the other witnesses below, and Dib sighed.

“Why am I surprised? They’re the one that started that whole jumping out the window thing in elementary school…”

* * *

Zim watched the teens swim from afar, leaning against the wall in a dark corner of the deck. There was no way he was going to get anywhere near the manmade water structure, seeing as people were following in Y/N’s footsteps and diving into the pool from the roof, causing large eruptions of water to splash up from the pool. Zim glared at Dib as he approached the pool wearing his own swimsuit, which was just a simple pair of grey and blue swimming trunks. The Irken winced as his nemesis jumped into the pool, before joining his friend in one of the pool corners. He grumbled. Zim had intended to speak with the teenage esper, but since they were in the pool of water, he didn’t dare approach. He didn’t feel like burning off his skin today.

Then, from the corner of his eye, Zim spotted movement. There, by the backyard’s front gate, was a tall blonde girl carrying a plastic bag full of… something. The Irken watched with interest as Jessica, the hostess of the party, approached her and hugged the girl before taking the plastic bag and leaving the other girl alone. Zim blinked, wondering what the hell he had just witnessed.

The other patrons of the party sure seemed to know, though.

“Ohoho, here comes the booze!”

“Duuuuude, this party’s about to get liiiiiiit bro.”

“Brooo, we should totally take shots!”

Then, Zim quickly found himself swept up by a fairly large crowd heading indoors. Quickly hopping up on the kitchen counter, Zim was able to watch as Jessica pulled out a large glass bottle that said “CHERRY INFUSED VODKA” and opened it before dumping it into a punch bowl. The crowd cheered, before grabbing more solo cups and filling them with the red drink. There were now two bowls of punch, the one with the vodka in it having a paper sign taped to it that said “spiked”.

Zim hummed thoughtfully as he watched the sea of people grab their drinks, and gripped the serum in his pocket. The Irken noticed that most people went immediately for the “spiked” punch, and he felt a sinister grin stretch across his face.

First, he grabbed one of the plastic red cups and popped open the bottle of serum, before dumping half of it into his cup. Next, he walked over to the punch bowl, and dipped in his cup, watching as the pink sparkles spread throughout the rest of the punch. He grinned even wider, before filling his cup all the way and heading back outside. He had a feeling that Y/N would get a ‘kick’ out of this new drink, as humans tend to say.

The Irken stepped out into the chilly evening air and walked towards the pool, drink in hand. The humans within its water were lucky the pool was heated or else they’d be shivering.

As Zim approached the pool, Y/N looked up from their conversation about vampire bees with Dib. They smiled warmly at him and waved.

“Heya Zim! Good to see ya! And by the swimming pool no less. How bold,” they greeted smugly, a smirk adorning their S/T features. Dib turned to the green alien and glared, but didn’t say anything. This confused Zim and caught him off guard, but he wasn’t going to complain. Instead, he gave as casual of a smile as he could and handed his esper friend the cup.

“I come bearing that DISGUSTING human punch so YOU wouldn’t have to get out of that pool and drip that horrible, stinky pool water everywhere. PRAISE ZIM!!!” the alien yelled, making Y/N and Dib wince from his volume.

Y/N studied the red solo cup skeptically along with Dib, who tried to grab the cup to throw it as far away as possible, but his friend didn’t let him. Instead, they stared into the cherry colored liquid for a few moments before grinning.

“Have you had alcohol before, Zim?” they asked, and the alien blinked.

“What’s alcohol?” he asked, and he felt his squeedilyspooch tighten in nervousness as the esper’s grin grew dangerously wide, E/C eyes glinting with an unknown emotion. They made a ‘come here’ motion with their finger, and Zim began to sweat, not knowing what his human friend was planning. Suddenly, Y/N grabbed his collar and yanked him forward, before pouring some of the punch down his throat.

Zim gagged at the bittersweet taste and tried to spit the liquid out but to no avail. He whipped his head to face Y/N, enraged.

“Y/N-STINK! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?” he roared, but Y/N only cackled at his reaction, swirling the rest of the sparkling liquid in their cup.

“If you’re gonna bring me an unknown drink, you should at least share with me,” they replied before taking a sip of their own. Zim’s heart leaped into his throat that his plan had actually worked, albeit with a few unexpected events. An evil grin spread across his face and he sat down next to the pool.

“So? How is it?” he asked, his mind already cycling through the diabolical plans he could now put into action with an esper under his command.

Y/N blinked, smacking their lips to see if they were tasting their drink correctly. They looked into their cup, and then back up at Zim. Their signature smirk came back as they spoke. “This is spiked, isn’t it?” they asked, and Dib physically paled.

“ZIM! What did you do to the punch?!” he demanded, pulling himself out of the pool and standing up, towering over the puny alien. Said alien scoffed and crossed his arms.

“Zim has absolutely NO idea what you’re talking about, Dib-stink,” he replied, before giving his nemesis a sinister grin, “Unless you’re speaking of the human mind-control serum I dumped in?”

Dib began to shake with rage. “WHY YOU-”

He was cut off by a wet hand gently grabbing his ankle.

“Dude, cut it out. Remember the little conversation we had earlier?” Y/N warned, before draining the rest of their cup and slapping it down on the poolside. Dib stared, eyebrows furrowed in disbelief before he grumbled to himself and stormed away, grabbing his towel and drying himself off as he headed inside the large house.

Zim cackled maniacally and turned to Y/N, who was climbing out of the pool as well to dry off.

“Wonderful performance, mind slave Y/N! By the end of tonight, I’ll be ruling over the world with mind-controlled pee-brains like you! AHAHA- hey, are you okay?”

Y/N did NOT look okay. Their face was now red, their movements were slow, and they seemed to be off-balance. “Shiiiiiit Zimmm, what the fffffUCK did you put in the punch??” they questioned, leaning against the wooden railing of the deck, “Alcohol isn’t supposed to get to anyone THIS quicklyyy…”

Zim froze. “Wait. Y/N-pig, are you not under the mighty Zim’s influence right now?” he inquired incredulously, and the wet human in front of him rubbed their eyes.

“Noooo… I don’t thiiiink soooo… III’m gonna find Dibby. I can’t belieeeve your mind-control serum made the alcohol strooongerrr instead of control minds…” they slurred, wrapping their towel around themselves and stumbling inside. Zim could only stare as the esper disappeared.

“... Well, that didn’t work. Ugh, now I’m starting to feel funny...”

Inside the house, Dib had managed to find the bag that he had kept his and Y/N’s clothes in inside an empty bedroom and intended to change out of his swimming trunks, but was stopped by Y/N themself.

“Diiiiib, duuuuude, you’re not gonna ffffucking believe this duuude,” they slurred, “You know the mind-control serum that Ziiim put in the alcoholic punch???”

Dib sighed, his friend starting to get on his nerves. “Yes, Y/N, I know about the serum. I’ve been freaking out about it all night.”

The 17-year-old stiffened as Y/N wrapped their damp arms around his bare torso from behind in a hug, their hands resting just below his pectorals. Immediately, the boy’s face turned beet red.

“What the hell are you doing?!” he squealed, turning around to face his esper friend only for them to bury their face in the skin of his torso, making him even redder. They mumbled something that Dib couldn’t quite hear.

“H-huh? What did you say?” he sputtered, trying to calm his beating down. It didn’t help that Y/N was still in their swimsuit. They then looked up at him, still leaning most of their body weight onto the poor boy.

“I suh- saaaaid,” they hiccupped, “that Zim’s mind control serum don’t worrrrrk. I think it- it made the punch, uhhhh, stronger. Wwwaaaaaaaaayyy stronger.”

…. Oh. Now Dib understood.

“You’re wasted already, huh?” he teased, placing a gentle hand on his best friend’s forehead and fixing a lock of wet hair that was rebelling from Y/N’s usual style.

Y/N could only nod. They could barely feel their legs, and their head felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton, like a teddy bear. They felt their legs weaken even more, so they tightened their grip on their friend to keep their balance.

“Drink with meee??” they asked, and Dib scoffed before shaking his head.

“Absolutely not. In fact, we’re going home,” he said sternly, prying off the Y/G and sitting them down on the bed. Y/N groaned in defiance as Dib pulled his shirt from out of his bag and slipped it on, before handing Y/N their own shirt.

They only huffed at it and chucked it as hard as they could, which wasn’t very hard because they were shitfaced. Dib stared the shirt on the floor before glaring at his friend.

“Y/N put your clothes on.”

“Nnnnno,” they opposed, crossing their arms like a little kid, “I wanna stay.”

“Y/N, you are acting like a kid throwing a tantrum. Shirt on. Now.”

“I don’t wannaa! We’ve only been here for a few hours, and I was promised ice creeeam! I want my ice cream, Diiiib!!”

Dib groaned at his drunk friend’s antics, massaging the bridge of his nose. “We can get your ice cream AFTER you put on your clothes. You shouldn’t walk around a house party half naked with only a bathing suit. It’s dangerous!” he cried, grabbing Y/N’s shirt off the floor and handing it to them. They only stared at the shirt in their hands.

“Put on the shirt Y/N. Don’t make me do it for you,” Dib warned.

Y/N looked up at him, their hazy eyes beginning to glimmer. “If I put on my shirt, I’ll get ice cream??” they asked and Dib sighed once again.

“As long as you put on pants with it, sure, why not.”

A few seconds passed and Y/N finally attempted putting their shirt on. Luckily, they put it on correctly and began searching the leather bag on the bed for their pants, which gave Dib adequate time to disappear into the attached bathroom to put the rest of his clothes on. He put his wet swimming trunks into the plastic bag that he brought after putting on his shoes and stepped out of the bathroom. Y/N would probably be uncomfortable in their clothes because they didn’t take off their swimsuit, but he could tell that everyone outside the bedroom door was about as wasted as Y/N was so they probably wouldn’t notice water soaking through Y/N’s attire.

When Dib stepped out of the bathroom, he found his friend struggling to tie their shoes, tangling the laces into a useless bundle. But for someone who’s drunk, it was pretty good handiwork.

“Alright Y/N, let’s get that ice cream now so we can leave,” he said, “I don’t want to stay at this fuckfest longer than we need to.”

He helped Y/N stand up and swung his duffel bag over his shoulder, mentally checking that everything was there. After making sure none of their belongings were stolen, he led Y/N out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. Dib noticed that the spiked punch bowl was almost empty, but the regular punch bowl was still pretty full. It seemed that everyone wanted to get shitfaced like the esper that was currently literally hanging off of his arm.

The Y/G cheered as Dib opened up the freezer, revealing a giant unopened 2-gallon tub of Neapolitan ice cream. Jessica must’ve forgotten to take it out. He set the tub on the counter and grabbed one of the paper bowls available, before rummaging through the kitchen drawers for a scoop. Once he found it, he scooped a huge amount of ice cream from the tub and plopped it into the bowl, before giving it to his drunk friend who managed to find a plastic spoon.

At the sight of the frozen treat, Y/N gasped before grinning and squeezing Dib in a tight hug.

“Oh my goooood, I love you. You’re the bestest bu-uddy I’ve ever haaaaaad!~”

After managing to separate Y/N from his body, Gaz walked into the kitchen dragging along a stumbling Zim by the arm.

“Zim’s white-girl wasted. We should probably go,” she said before her eyes widened at the sight of Y/N, who was still red in the face and was currently _devouring_ the ice cream in their hands.

“Damn, Y/N got wasted too?” Gaz snorted, a humored smirk stretching across her pale face. Beside her, Zim was wailing complete drivel, the only understandable words being about him taking over the world. His face was a bright pink with one of his eyelids drooping, and his worm-like tongue looked close to falling out of his mouth.

Ignoring the drunken alien, Dib continued his conversation with his sister.

“Yeah. Zim tried to spike the alcoholic punch with some mind-control serum but I guess it didn’t react correctly with the alcohol and it made the alcohol more potent instead. I’m pretty sure he only had a sip.” he said, mindlessly putting a hand on Y/N’s shoulder when they leaned on him for support again.

“You ssssstupid Duh-ugh-Dib-stink,” Zim slurred, stumbling towards his sober rival, breaking out of Gaz’s grasp, “You may TTHHHHINK the GRRREAT ZIIIM is out of commission, but I can assure you, YOU, your sssstu-stupid friends, and your ssssstUPID PLANET will belong to ZIIIIIIIM!”

Dib watched as Zim stumbled closer, his arms held out for both balance, and the preparation to deliver a punch. Dib had never seen such a pathetic sight and scowled, bringing his hand up to Zim’s forehead and flicking it.

Zim fell to the floor, down for the count.

After an awkward silence between the three remaining conscious members, Y/N burped, trying to avoid vomiting onto the floor.

“Alright, alright, NOW we’re leaving. Gaz, could you grab Zim and Gir? I need to take this one to the car and get them settled,” Dib requested, and his sister only nodded before flinging Zim over her shoulder like a baby and disappearing into the crowd. Y/N finished their ice cream and tossed the ruined bowl into the trash before Dib grabbed them, leading them outside.

That night, Dib decided he was never drinking. Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO'S BACK (BACK BACK)  
BACK AGAIN (GAIN GAIN)  
Also, I've decided that writing with a schedule SUCKS so I'm just gonna update whenever I feel like it.


	12. Ghosts or Whatever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no! Zim's new base is haunted! WHATEVER shall the ESPER do??

“Bye Judge! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Y/N waved to their friend and co-worker as they left the restaurant, plastic bag of baked treats in hand. The Y/G walked over to their motorcycle, put on their iconic horned helmet, and sped off, leaving a small gap in the powdery snow that had freshly fallen only a few minutes ago.

Was it extremely dangerous to ride a motorcycle in the dead of winter? Yes.

Did Y/N care? Nope.

Don’t be like Y/N, kids. Just take the bus.

As the Y/G sped down the highway, their mind preoccupied itself with thoughts of Y/N’s friends. The esper hadn’t hung out with their friends outside of school or work ever since Jessica’s house party, which had to be at least two weeks ago. Needless to say, the H/C haired human missed their friends and wanted to check up on them.

Especially Zim.

While the Membrane siblings and their other friends texted occasionally, Zim didn’t answer any calls, texts, or even video messages. And given Zim’s ever so talkative personality, that was weird. 

“Hmm, maybe I’ll stop by Zim’s place… It’s not too late, so I might as well…” the Y/G spoke to nobody in particular, making a quick turn onto the street that would eventually lead them to the alien’s domain.

* * *

After parking their motorcycle, Y/N jogged over to the gates of the old Wimbleton’s Splash Zone and looked directly into the secret camera. When it recognized the Y/G’s face the gate slowly swung open, granting access to the esper.

As they let their muscle memory take over to get to Zim’s, Y/N pulled out their cell phone and called the alien whom they had on speed dial. Even though the frigid air made their gloved fingers cold, they held up the cellphone to their ear.

_ Riiiiing… _

_ Riiiiing… _

_ Riiiiing… _

_ “Your ALMIGHTY FUTURE OVERLORD ZIM is BUSY!! Call later! Uh, LEAVE A MESSAGE!!!!” _

_ Beeeep! _

‘Damn, that green son of a bitch still isn’t answering?’ The esper thought to themself as they placed their right hand on the maintenance building door, and watched as the familiar red laser scanned their hand and allowed them access. They put their phone back into their coat pocket and shut the door behind them before stepping into the red spray-painted O on the floor.

“Almighty Tallest Zim,” Y/N said, the spoken passcode activating the elevator they were standing on. They watched as a tube suddenly formed around them and the circle beneath them lowered, taking them into Zim’s base. The elevator grew pitch black as the ceiling closed up, the only light coming from the glow of the blue necklace that Dib had given them. 

A familiar ding was heard and the esper instinctively covered their eyes but was surprised to find Zim’s lab dark. Not pitch black, but dark enough to where they had a hard time seeing. They stepped out of the elevator and into the darkened lab, becoming alarmed when glass crunched beneath their shoes.

“Zim?” Y/N called out.

There was no answer.

“Oh, son of a…”

They walked deeper into the lab, continuously calling out for their alien friend. There were still lights on, but it looked like many of them had been shattered. The esper checked as many rooms as they could, including the lab, bathroom, computer room, and even the bedroom that Y/N had included for their own sake.

Zim was still nowhere to be found.

“Computer,” Y/N yelled, “Tell me where Zim is! I can’t find him!”

Instead of the usual sassiness of the AI playing through the speakers as Y/N expected, it was a horrible noise that sounded like screaming, moaning, and a fork scraping across the place all at once. It shot a harsh shiver down the esper’s spine, and they broke out in a cold sweat.

Now they were extremely worried.

‘Ugh, I really didn’t want to do this, but I guess I have no choice…’ they thought to themself.

Y/N closed their eyes and focused, feeling the energy flowing through their blood. They took a deep breath and focused the energy to their head before opening their eyes, which now glowed a bright blue.

Man, Y/N had forgotten how bright the spirit plane looked.

The spirit plane was just like it sounded; it was the plane of existence where spirits and ghosts roamed before eventually passing on. When looking into the spirit plane the environment around the seer stayed exactly the same, the only difference being there was no darkness. There were no shadows, and all colors that were around were their brightest shade.

It was pretty but disorienting.

Floating around the esper’s head were some animal spirits, who were curiously sniffing and prodding at their H/C hair. There were three of them; a raccoon, an opossum, and a bat.

If it weren't for the fact that animal spirits were generally covered in eyes and had extra limbs, the esper would’ve given them a couple of pets on their heads.

And of course, those weren’t the only spirits in the alien’s abode. There were spirits all over the place.

As Y/N searched through the base once more with their new vision, they saw the usual wandering souls. The small and vaguely shaped wisps of light lazily glided through the air, following the air currents of Zim’s base. 

And then, the esper felt the pull of something fearful. Whatever it was, it was sending out large waves of negative energy, agitating some of the usually docile spirits. Y/N furrowed their brow, and followed the feeling, allowing it to take them to whatever was feeling so distressed. They followed the feeling to Zim’s personal chambers, the large door locked. A few upset spirits bonked their heads against the metal door, and Y/N had to gently move them out of the way so they could knock.

“Zim? Are you in there?” they called out, and put their ear against the door to listen for any shuffling inside. When Y/N knocked, they were relieved to hear a familiar gasp, as well as footsteps, approaching. However, Zim didn’t open the door.

“Y-Y/N? Is that you?” the alien asked, and the human took notice of the fearful quiver in his voice immediately.

“Yeah, it’s Y/N. Can you open the door? This place is a wreck.”

“Alright…”

Y/N heard a button being pressed on the other side of the door and watched as it opened, the nearby spirits pouring in and investigating. Luckily, the negative feeling had died down quite a bit so the spirits calmed down.

As soon as he saw the esper, Zim let out a startled gasp and jumped backward, his PAK responding and deploying some of his robot legs.

“HUMAN! YOUR EYES!” he cried out, pointing at Y/N’s luminescent optics, “WHAT’S WRONG WITH THEM???”

Y/N blinked, before realizing what he meant. “Ah, don’t worry Zim. This is pretty normal for me,” they assured the alien, who looked like he had seen a ghost. “So, what’s wrong? Why are you hiding in here? I thought you had some experiments you were working on?”

And with that, the alien explained to the esper all the strange events that had been happening. Apparently, a couple of days after the party, Zim noticed objects moving around the lab on their own. As the days passed, more and more things began to move on their own and malfunction until even his computer couldn’t speak and his lights began exploding out of nowhere. To keep himself safe, Zim locked himself in his room and sent Gir out to investigate. However, the robot still hasn’t come back, despite it being around 3 days since he was sent out.

Y/N hummed at the alien’s explanation, their eyes mindlessly following the animal spirits floating through the air.

Suddenly, it hit them.

“A POLTERGEIST!” Y/N gasped aloud, startling Zim who yelped and jumped back from the human.

“A what?” Zim questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“A poltergeist,” Y/N answered, “is a type of ghost. They’re the ones who cause phenomena such as objects moving on their own, as well as being able to bite, scratch, and push physical bodies, such as you and I.” 

Zim’s magenta eyes widened. “So you’re saying that everything happening here is the result of some… paranormal entity?”

“Yes.”

“As in… the human baloney that the Dib believes in?”

“Yup.”

Zim stared at the esper in disbelief, his eyebrows furrowed and his antennae drooped. Then, he snarled at Y/N and crossed his arms.

“Do you honestly expect me to believe you and your weird… ghostie nonsense??? Do you HONESTLY think that I, the ALMIGHTY ZIM, am being HAUNTED? HA! You stupid human, you have NO PROOF!”

“Yeah, well Dib also believes in aliens and you’re standing right in front of me.”

Zim opened his mouth to retort, but the unnaturally glowing deadpan stare from his ally made his mind go blank.

He snapped out of his stupor when Y/N lightly grabbed his arm and began to pull him along through the halls, looking left and right for… something. Zim had no clue what, but he could tell they were searching.

“Ehh, Y/N, where are you taking Zim??” he asked, his antennae reeling back. Due to many of his lights being smashed, he was having a hard time seeing the area around him. But the esper holding him by the arm seemed to know exactly where they were going.

“Ghost hunting,” they replied, a small smirk creeping up their S/T face.

Zim gulped. He did NOT like the sound of that.

After a few minutes of assessing most of the rooms in the new base, Y/N abruptly stopped walking, causing the alien trailing behind them to bump into their thighs. Zim grumbled to himself but stopped to take out his flashlight from his PAK and take in his surroundings.

They were in Lab #2. Along the sleek desks were alien machine parts, sketches, and blueprints, haphazardly strewn about. Pinned to the white cabinets were progress reports, as well as notes for the experiment that was currently being held in this room. Most of the lights in had been blasted, their leftover shards leaving a huge mess on the purple tile floor. The only light that hadn’t exploded yet was the one dead center in the room, above the main lab table.

The irken suddenly felt a cold shiver run up his spine, and he looked to his comrade, who was now staring intently at the center of the room. One look at Y/N’s hardened facial expression and the alien knew for a fact that they were seeing something he could not.

Y/N frowned when their eyes made contact with the entity hovering over the table in Lab #2. It was obvious that it was the culprit of Zim’s worries. It had all the telltale signs of a poltergeist, the main one being the fact that it was opaque instead of translucent, unlike most entities in the spirit plane.

But what was weird was the fact that it looked like a  _ human _ . A young boy, to be exact. Y/N couldn’t exactly make out his features; it was like his entire body was cast in shadow. But his silhouette was still there, just floating above the lab table.

“Hey kid, whatcha doin’ there? Interested in the stuff on that table?” Y/N hesitantly asked the ghost, the volume of their own voice surprising them. They heard Zim behind them asking who they were talking to, but he went ignored. The boy suddenly looked up at the esper, eyes wide in shock as he suddenly landed on his feet on the table. Y/N still couldn’t see his features, but they could tell the boy was just as surprised as they were.

_ “You can see me?”  _ the boy’s voice rang through the spirit plane, making their head spin. The esper nodded.

“Yeah. May I ask who you are? And what you’re doing here?”

The boy sighed and shook his head.  _ “Oh, I’m a nobody… just a kid hanging out at the pool… just like the others.” _

Y/N perked their head up. “Others?” they asked, taking a couple of steps into the room, “You mean you aren’t the only kid here?”

The only answer the esper got before the boy disappeared into thin air was an expression of grief and sorrow.

After a few seconds of silence, Zim decided to make himself known once again.

“Y/N…” he said, “who… in the name of The Tallest… WERE YOU TALKING TO???” 

The esper jolted at Zim’s sudden volume right next to their right ear and glared down at the irken in irritation before sighing and rubbing their temples.

“Your place is  _ haunted _ , Zim. There was a ghost in Lab #2, and apparently there are more,” they explained. They then raised a hand and levitated the glass on the floor, putting all of the shards into a large pile next to the door. “C’mon, Zim. Looks like I’m playing hide and seek with a bunch of phantoms.”

“Ehh?? What do you mean there was a ghost?? The mighty Zim didn’t see a single thing!” Zim protested, standing in the doorway to the lab.

“Yeah, that’s exactly why I said that I’M playing hide and seek. As an esper, I can see entities that regular beings can’t.” Y/N elucidated.

Zim gasped and clutched his chest, offended. “How DARE you call the ALMIGHTY ZIM a REGULAR BEING!” he exploded, face turning pink in rage. Despite this, the esper simply rolled their eyes at the short alien, used to this kind of behavior by now. Not like he would notice, considering their eyes were still glowing that bright blue.

“Can YOU see ghosts, Zim? Because it sounds to me like you can’t,” Y/N jeered, glaring into Zim’s magenta eyes with their own. The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before the Irken grumbled and looked at the floor, avoiding Y/N’s gaze.

“Ugh, whatever. Just… make sure I don’t have to deal with any more ‘poultry-guys’ again,” he ordered before his PAK legs extended and lifted him up to the esper’s height, “While you do that, I’M going to clean my base.”

And with that, Zim took off down the dark hallways, leaving Y/N alone.

“Alright. If I were a dead kid, where would I be…?” the H/C-haired esper muttered to themself as they wandered the base. Their head was starting to hurt from peering into the spirit plane for so long. If they kept it up for much longer, they’d have to take the nap of their life.

_ ‘What was it that kid said he was? Something about pools…’ _ Y/N wondered before realization struck them.

“OH!! Of course!”

The esper’s leisurely walk turned into a full-on sprint as they headed towards the lobby, managing to slip on broken glass on occasion but never falling. They spammed the ‘up’ button on the entrance elevator, excitement pumping through their veins as they waited for the elevator to open. When it did, they immediately stepped in and anxiously shifted their weight on their feet as the mechanism began to rise.

After leaving the elevator and whipping open the door to the entrance of the base, Y/N ran towards the center of the old waterpark. Considering it was now around 8 pm on a winter night, the world should’ve looked pitch black to the esper. However, due to their current vision, they could see just fine, avoiding patches of ice.

Eventually, they made it to the main pool; a 20ft deep hole in the ground with a couple of ladders on both lengths for people to climb in and out of. The rest of the pools in the park received water from it like a lake turning into a river.

As Y/N approached, they could make out another negative energy inside the pool. So, to not disturb whatever was seething in it, they crouched down in the snow and peered over the edge. 

It was another kid. But this time, they were just laying in the middle of the pool, sobbing their eyes out. Due to the ghost’s clothes, the esper could tell it was a little girl who couldn’t be older than 9 years old.

“Hey there,” Y/N called out as soothingly as possible, “what’s wrong?”

The ghost took a moment to calm herself a bit before she sat up and looked up at Y/N, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

_ “Mi- Mister Xand-der- h-he- I- the too-toolshed…” _ she stammered, still choking back tears.

Y/N tilted their head, trying to connect the dots. “Did Mister Xander do something to you in the shed?” they asked, and the ghost started bawling even harder, before she disappeared into a puff of white smoke, exorcising herself.

Y/N stood up and patted the snow off their legs, hugging themself to preserve the warmth. Why did it have to be so cold???

“Alright, guess I’m heading to the toolshed…” they mumbled to themself before walking once again.

The toolshed was easily one of the oldest buildings in the entire park. Its concrete bricks were cracked and covered in some kind of mold that was miraculously surviving in the harsh winter cold, and its door was made of old splintering wood. Y/N could tell there was  _ something _ going on inside; the waves of negative energy were powerful, and almost knocked the teenage esper on their ass twice. Not to mention it made Y/N’s power-headache that much worse; it was growing almost unbearable.

But answers were more important than some headache at the moment.

Y/N took a deep breath as they placed their gloved hand onto the handle, jolting as the energy shot through them like a fork in a toaster. But they put on their brave face and turned the brass handle.

The door opened.

Y/N immediately felt overwhelmed by how many distressed child souls were inside. As soon as they had opened the door, their small heads snapped to the esper and stared; some were crying, some were dumbfounded, and some were  _ pissed. _

_ ‘Okay public speaking skills, don’t fail me now,’  _ Y/N thought to themself, taking a deep breath.

“Uhm, hello there. Mind if I come in?” they asked the ghosts, who didn’t say a word.

One of them however stuck a hand out and made a ‘come here’ motion with their finger, and the esper complied, noting that that particular ghost looked to be the oldest of the bunch. They looked to be about 14.

As soon as Y/N was inside, the door slammed shut behind them and locked, making the esper break out in a cold sweat once again. The energy from the ghosts was nauseating, and their auras drowned out the bright colors of the spirit plane and turned it into an inky black.

_ “Why are you here?” _ the oldest ghost demanded, and Y/N could see them narrowing their eyes in what was most likely suspicion. They stood in front of the other ghosts in a protective manner, subtly holding their arm out behind them.

“My name is Y/N, and I’m an esper,” Y/N introduced, “and I promise I mean no harm. I noticed that my… friend’s home was haunted, and I traced the presence back to here.”

The main ghost scoffed and crossed their arms. _ “So what, you want to get rid of us? Is that it?”  _ they growled, and the younger ones shrunk back in fear at the thought, _ “You want to encase us with those fancy powers of yours and tear our essence to shreds?” _

Y/N shook their head frantically. “Oh no! Of course not! I only exorcise spirits as a last resort; you have my word on that,” they explained, “But you guys have been really messing with my friend and he’s freaking out. I also received a tip about some man named-”

_ “DON’T. Don’t say his name,” _ the ghost said, voice becoming even lower and dangerous than it was before.

“If I may ask, what happened?”

The ghost stared at Y/N for a few moments, before sighing and slumping to the floor. The younger ones followed suit, sitting in a circle as if they were going to be read to by a teacher. Y/N joined the circle, sitting between a girl with a bun and a boy in his swimming trunks.

The ghost began to speak, and everyone else listened.

_ “The man’s name was Jonathan Xander. He worked here at Wimbleton’s Splash Zone as a maintenance man. Cleaning out filters, fixing pipes, y’know… pool stuff. But he had a side hobby… _

_ Killing children. _

_ Every single one of us… Every spirit here in this park was murdered by that monster. _

_ He would lure kids like us into this very shed, promising us free floaties or snorkels or something… But instead of keeping his promise, he held us down, covered our mouths and noses so we couldn’t scream, and beat us to death with the tool of his choice. And then, he threw our bodies into the park’s water tower to decompose…” _

The room was deathly silent as Y/N processed the tale, who was growing more mortified by the second. In fact, they could remember the last day the splash zone was open, and it was a memory that haunted their childhood.

_ It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The sky was cloud-free and the sun was hot, warming up the Earth that its rays touched. 12-year old Y/N, Dib, and 10-year old Gaz whooped excitedly as they dove into the clear water of the swimming pool, while Professor Membrane had found a chair in the shade to sit at and observe his kids and their friend. The water was cool compared to the heated air, and Y/N, Dib, and Gaz made sure to revel in it. They played water tag, mermaids, and held water-based contests for hours. For Y/N, it was probably one of the happiest days of their life. _

_ Until the water started turning red. _

_ Y/N had been the first one to notice it. The red water was coming from one of the jets, and they could see little particle bits coming out the piece of white plastic. _

_ “Hey! Gazzy! Dibby! Look!” they had called out to their friends, who swam over to see what the young Y/G was looking at. _

_ Y/N pointed at the jet, forgetting to tread water for a moment and sinking beneath the water. They panicked and opened their mouth, and they recognized the taste immediately, causing them to scream and latch onto Dib, sputtering out as much of the water as they could. _

_ “HOLY FUCK, THERE’S BLOOD IN THE WATER!” they had screeched, catching the attention of the lifeguard who looked over, saw the unnatural redness in the water, and ordered an evacuation. As soon as Y/N had made it out of the water, they sprinted to the bathrooms and shoved their fingers down their throat. Their gag reflex was triggered and they vomited into the toilet, getting rid of any blood they may have swallowed. Gazlene would find them only minutes later, and they both sobbed their eyes out right there on the floor of that bathroom stall. _

_ Wimbleton’s Splash Zone never opened again after that. _

“So it was that  _ freak _ who made the water turn red that day…” Y/N gasped in horror, their eyes burning with tears. They looked up at the ghost who was staring at them and they stared at each other before both of them broke down in tears.

“I’m so sorry…” the Y/G whimpered, lifting a hand to hide their watering eyes, “I’m so sorry you all had to go through such a thing…”

The oldest ghost sniffed, and Y/N realized that the room seemed to be a lot emptier now. Some of the ghosts either exorcised themselves or passed on. Now, it was just the oldest ghost as well as a few younger kids. 

_ “I just wish…”  _ the oldest ghost whispered,  _ “that I knew what happened to our killer.” _

Y/N’s eyes lit up, and they desperately reached into one of the pockets of their jacket.

_ “What are you doing?”  _ the ghost asked, tilting their head in confusion. 

“I can tell you what happened! Jonathan Xander’s name was in the news for months after that day,” the esper replied, pulling out their phone and unlocking it. They opened up their internet app and searched the murderer’s name, thankful that Zim’s WIFI connection was strong.

The remaining ghosts gathered around the esper and peered at their phone just as they pulled up a news article, detailing what happened to the evil man that was haunting these souls’ souls for years. 

Y/N cleared their throat and began to read.

_ “On June 29th, 20XX, patrons of Wimbleton’s Splash Zone were chased out of the water as it began to turn red. After a thorough search made by the waterpark’s maintenance team, they were horrified to find the bodies of 18 young children aged 6 to 14 hidden in the park’s iconic water tower. Once the police took over, they were able to track down the horrible monster that would do such a thing. _

_ Jonathan Xander, aged 38, was arrested on July 3rd and put on trial 3 days later. The trial on July 6th proved the man to be guilty, as he had confessed to his crimes. He was also responsible for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Lana-Jane Good. Because of this, he was placed on death row to pay for his crimes. Today, on July 11, Xander was executed by lethal injection. _

_ Our hearts go out to the families of all the children who lost their lives to this beast. There will be a memorial held on the 20th for the children and their families.” _

There was a deafening silence as everyone soaked in the information, just sitting on the dusty concrete floor of the old toolshed. 

_ “So… is Mister Xander… dead?”  _ one of the younger ghosts asked, placing an icy hand on Y/N’s shoulder.

“He was put to death as he deserved. He can’t hurt anyone anymore,” they replied, a small comforting smile on their face. The oldest ghost stared at the esper once again; this time with gratefulness and warmth. Then, they hugged Y/N. All the ghosts did. And then they were gone with a flash of gold light, the inky blackness of the haunted shed back to its original color.

Y/N smiled wide and laid down on the floor, full of pride.

Another job well done.


End file.
